


You Can Count on Me

by DesertSnowQueen



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya breaks the fourth wall, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Full Identity Reveal later, Hawkmoth puts 2 and 2 together and comes up with -1, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Marichat for at least half of this fic, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Oblivious Adrien Agreste, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partial Identity Reveal, Secret Identity Math, Those are important, adrien puts 2 and 2 together and gets 1, also power-ups, alya puts 2 and 2 together and gets 3, at least i hope you will be, but also a TON of Adrienette, but also a lot of angst, hawkmoth is a grump, he has the ever growing urge to throw things, it's gonna hurt but you're gonna be happy about it, lots of fluff, marinette will eventually put 2 and 2 together and get 4 but it’ll take her AGES, nathalie doesn't get paid enough for this, nino can't believe how clueless his best friend is, nino just watches them fail at math from the sidelines with popcorn, tables, the universe is a bitch to miraculous holders in this, this is not the first time ladybug's civilian identity has been hurt like this, wait damn now I need Hawkmoth, yes that qualifies as an important enough point in this fic to get it's own tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-08-19 06:48:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16529510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertSnowQueen/pseuds/DesertSnowQueen
Summary: There are things Marinette fears, and there are things Ladybug fears, and then there are things she never thought she would have to fear. When she has to face something she never thought to be afraid of, the only way she'll get out alive is by revealing her secret identity to Chat Noir. He saves her life, and insists on staying by her side to help her cope with the aftermath...even if he can't tell her who he is yet.(There is no explicit rape in this fic, but it's heavily implied that that is what happened to her. Her recovery is going to be written the way I think she would handle this happening to her. Also with added magic boosts because why not.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been bouncing around in my head since February when I started writing it, and I decided to rewrite it to help it follow canon a little better. That said, I am 100% tweaking the canon to suit my purposes here.
> 
> Part of this arose from wondering why Marinette didn't have a best friend before meeting Alya. The rest of it is for the drama of it all and to suit what I wanted to write. I'm also going to have as many funny moments in here as possible because I am physically incapable of only writing angst.
> 
> Enjoy!

There were things Marinette Dupain-Cheng was afraid of, and most of these things were fairly standard. Failure. Rejection. The collapse of her hopes and dreams if she makes one singular mistake at any time in her youth. Things everyone worries about.

There were also things Marinette was afraid of that most of the people around her didn’t have to worry about. Specifically, she was afraid of what would happen if Ladybug failed to protect the city of Paris from the danger Hawkmoth posed. Now, others might argue that everyone in Paris secretly worried about that, but they didn’t worry about it the way Marinette did. After all, the mistakes made by a superhero matter a lot more to the person who actually is that hero.

Then there were the things that she never thought she would actually have to worry about. Things that she knew happened to other people, but never thought they would actually happen to her. She was a superhero! And not just any superhero, she was Ladybug! She had a crime fighting partner and a magical, cookie-loving ladybug that granted her superpowers! If she could protect Paris from Hawkmoth’s monstrous akumas on a weekly basis, then surely, she would be able to protect herself.

The only problem? As her best friend and partner in fighting crime, Chat Noir, might have pointed out: her name isn’t Shirley.

~*~*~*~

“That was a really difficult akuma, Marinette!” Tikki exclaimed as soon as the transformation fell.

“I know, Tikki! Even with the others helping, it still took the whole afternoon to defeat him! He kept multiplying, so we just couldn’t find the original!” Marinette said, opening her purse to get a cookie for her kwami, only to find crumbs. “We had to retransform so many times I ran out of cookies for you. I’ll have to stop into a store on the way home and get some. They won’t be as good as papa’s, though.”

“That’s okay, Marinette,” Tikki said, flying into Marinette’s open purse. “At least Master Fu finally agreed to let the others keep their Miraculous, even though it was hard for him to part with Wayzz. Now we don’t have to take more time to go back and forth between his apartment every time you and Chat Noir need backup.”

“And it means we don’t have to rush to his apartment to return the Miraculous tonight,” Marinette agreed.

She went to the end of the alleyway and checked to make sure the coast was clear before walking out onto the quiet street. The sun had already begun to set, and she was still at least thirty minutes away from home by foot. She began her walk, cursing her luck that all of the shops in the area had closed because of the akuma and apparently had decided to just remain closed for the night. Even the 24-hour convenience stores were closed.

“Oh, Tikki. I understand its safer for everyone if they stay well away from the akumas but why does all of Paris have to shut down?” Marinette complained after finding yet another store was closed.

“It’s okay, Marinette! We’ll be home soon,” Tikki encouraged. Marinette nodded. She closed her purse again just as a tall man in a long, dark coat bumped into Marinette’s shoulder.

“Excuse me,” he muttered, offering no other indication that he had noticed her as he continued walking briskly down the street. Marinette turned and stared after him, a vague red flag screaming at her wordlessly.

“Who was that?” Tikki asked, peeking back out from inside Marinette’s purse.

“I don’t know, Tikki,” Marinette said, looking down at her pale pink sundress, white cardigan, and white sandals on her bare feet, “but it’s odd that he was wearing such a heavy coat. It may be getting late, but it’s still warm enough that no one should be cold.”

“Maybe he’s sick?” Tikki offered.

“Maybe,” Marinette hummed, then turned and set back on her route to the bakery.

She walked quickly, an uneasy feeling settling in her chest. She almost felt as though she was being watched, but every time she turned around to check, the sidewalk was empty. She breathed out a sigh of relief when the park outside the bakery finally came into view. All she had to do was cross it and unlock the side door to the apartment. She could practically smell the dinner her maman had made already.

Or she could until someone grabbed her by the arm and shoved a foul-smelling cloth over her mouth. 

Then her world went black.

~*~*~*~

“Marinette! Marinette, you have to wake up! Marinette!”

The girl in question finally opened her eyes with a groan. “Tikki?”

“Yes! Oh, Marinette! I was so worried!” Tikki said, nuzzling against her Chosen’s cheek.

“Wait, Tikki, what happened?” Marinette asked. She tried to sit up, but a tug on her wrists drew her attention to the reality of the situation: she was tied to a table or bench of some kind. She felt the unease from earlier return with a vengeance, mutating into full-blown panic. “What-why am-Tikki, where are we?”

“It was the man from earlier, the one that bumped into you with the long coat! He came up behind you and shoved a cloth in your face and you collapsed! Then he brought us to an abandoned building a few blocks away from your house,” Tikki explained. “We have to get out of here!”

“I can’t move, Tikki. My arms…I think he tied them up,” Marinette whispered, trying and failing to quell her panic. Tikki nodded and zipped to her wrists. She could feel her kwami tug at the rope in a useless attempt to release her, and a darker thought crossed her mind. “Tikki, he didn’t see you, right?”

“No, I was able to stay hidden,” Tikki reassured her Chosen. She was about to say more when they heard a door open, and Tikki dove under the table to get out of sight.

Marinette turned her head towards the sound. She could make out the vague shape of a man walking towards her in the dark room.

“About time you woke up, sweetheart,” he sneered. “Maybe now we can get down to the business at hand.”

“I’ll scream if you come any closer,” Marinette said bravely. She was trying to channel as much of her Ladybug courage as she could, but the man just laughed at her.

“Go ahead,” he said, opening his arms in a grand gesture. “There’s nobody around to hear you.”

“Paris has heroes, you know! They patrol the city all the time. One of them will hear me!” she tried, knowing full well Monday nights were Ladybug’s responsibility and no one else was going to come out again after that akuma attack. Well, Chat might have, but would patrol be over by now? Or would it not start for hours? They usually started around 9:00…what time was it?

“I’ve spent weeks monitoring the patrol routes they take. They won’t be anywhere near here in time to save you,” he sneered. He took on a mocking tone as he continued, “Besides, I’m not an akuma, sweetheart. They only fight akumas, and they certainly won’t step in to save a brat like you.”

“That’s not true! They’re heroes! Heroes save everyone!” Marinette said, her voice finally cracking. She knew no one was coming to save her, but she had hoped…

“Not girls like you, Nettie,” the man said, the familiar nickname scaring her more than the icy tone of his voice. “Not girls that don’t protect their friends. And certainly not girls that are out walking on the streets past their bedtimes.”

“Wait, you…do I know you?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Apparently, he still heard her.

“ _Of course_ you know me, Nettie. You knew my sister too, before she killed herself. You even dared to call yourself her best friend,” he snarled, stepping into the moonlight streaming into the room through a hole in the roof. “What right did you have to call yourself her best friend? You never stood up to her when that spoilt, bottle-blonde brat-turned-superhero bullied her relentlessly! She had to stand up for the two of you! What kind of best friend are you?”

“…Michel?” she whispered, feeling the world fall out from under her. 

It couldn’t be, he was gone…he had gone to university after his sister died and no one had heard from him in almost two years! Michel Boivin…the neighborhood bully who claimed to love his sister Cheryl more than life itself. He tortured the neighborhood kids and laughed at their pain. He used a slingshot to throw rocks and nails at stray dogs when he wanted attention. He was the number one suspect whenever someone’s pet disappeared and had almost killed people before. He was brash and loud and cruel, but Cheryl was his opposite in every way. She was gentle and kind and the darling of her family. Everyone at school loved her and were heartbroken when she died. Everyone but Chloe, that is, but Cheryl never let Chloe bother her. If Marinette was being honest, she had never believed that Cheryl’s death was a suicide, but with no witnesses except her brother and nothing but circumstantial evidence, the police ruled it a tragic accident and closed the case.

Never in her life had Marinette regretted another person’s decision more than she did right then.

“So, you _do_ remember me, Nettie,” Michel sneered. “It’s good to see you didn’t completely forget your past when you became ‘best friends’ with that Ladyblogger. Do you stand up for her? Or does she have to stand up for you like Cheryl did?”

Marinette couldn’t bring herself to speak. She could barely breathe, and her heart was racing a million miles a minute. Michel stalked over to her and rested his hand on the exposed skin above her knee, causing her to jump and kick him away. He tsked in response, shaking his head as if in disappointment.

“Well, that definitely won’t do, will it, Nettie?” he asked, chuckling when she stayed quiet. “You just sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

His threat lingered in the air as he walked away, leaving her alone again. Once she heard the door shut, Tikki flew out from her hiding place under the table.

“We have to get out of here!” Tikki said again. “We could transform! I could hold it long enough for you to get out of here and bring that Michel guy to the police!”

“You haven’t eaten, Tikki. I won’t force you to hold a transformation when you have no energy,” Marinette refused. “We’re not even sure how long you could hold a transformation right now. Besides, if I transform, Michel will know my identity, and he might go straight to Hawkmoth with it.”

“Fine, then I’ll try the ropes again!” Tikki said, flitting back over to the rope around her wrists. 

Marinette just shook her head sadly.

“Tikki, stop,” she whispered, her unsteady voice the first indication that she was trembling despite the warm weather. “It’s no use. You aren’t going to be able to undo the ropes.”

“With just a little luck, I could!” Tikki insisted, her voice strained as she struggled. “Oh! If only I had Plagg’s powers! He could destroy the ropes just by looking at them!”

“Tikki, you need to go find Chat Noir and bring him here,” Marinette said. “You know who he is, do you think you could find him?”

“Well, yes, but Marinette, that would expose your identity to him!” Tikki exclaimed, flying over to look her Chosen in the eye. “Are you ready for that? What about Alya, or Nino, or—”

“No, Tikki. I trust them, and they’re my best friends, but Chat is my partner. You need to go find him,” Marinette said. “Please, Tikki. I think, I think Michel is going to kill me. And if you don’t make it back in time…he needs to find out what happened from you. He can’t find out from the news or be left to wonder what happened to his Lady if she never shows up to another akuma battle, or from one of the heroes I chose for backup. He needs to know the truth, even if I can’t be the one to tell him…if anyone is going to learn my identity, it has to be Chat.”

“Okay, Marinette. I’ll bring him here. Just, hang on, please! You’re Ladybug, Marinette, even if you can’t transform. He can’t take that from you,” Tikki said, feeling her heart shatter for her Chosen. Marinette nodded wordlessly, a few stray tears streaming down her cheeks, and Tikki flew off to find Chat Noir just as Michel opened the door and walked back in carrying what looked like more rope.

It was all thanks to Ladybug’s luck that the Agreste mansion was just a few streets away.

~*~*~*~

Tikki found Adrien’s window as quickly as she could. Luckily, he was still awake, and the light from his room was like a beacon. She phased through the window, flying fast enough that she wasn’t able to stop before she ran into the back of his head at full speed.

“Ow, Plagg! What was that for?” Adrien asked, turning around in his chair. He only stopped when he was practically nose-to-nose with the ladybug kwami. His green eyes crossed as he attempted to focus on her. “You’re not Plagg.”

“Tikki?” Plagg asked, flying out from his trash can. “What’s going on?”

“Ladybug is in trouble!” Tikki cried, backing away from Adrien so he could see her better. It didn’t matter much though because he called for his transformation as soon as she said ‘Ladybug’ and ‘trouble’ in the same breath. Tikki blinked against the flash of green light, then continued to explain what happened as Chat Noir stalked toward the window. “She was walking home, and a guy named Michel grabbed her and now he has her trapped in an abandoned building, but he isn’t an akuma and we couldn’t transform because she ran out of cookies during the akuma fight and even if we did transform it would have exposed her identity and I didn’t want to leave her alone, but she sent me to get you to help her and she thinks he’s going to kill her, Chat Noir, and we have to hurry!”

“We’ll help her,” Chat promised. His expression was the darkest Tikki had ever seen on a Chat Noir, and she was very glad it wasn’t directed at her. “Now, where is the building?”

“Follow me!” Tikki said and flew through the window. Chat Noir opened it and followed right behind her.

They made it to the roof of the building in no time. Chat peered down through the whole in the roof as much as he dared. He didn’t want to tip off the guy holding Ladybug by blocking the moonlight and make him do something rash. All he could see in the dim light was a bare leg tied to a table and a pair of white sandals. He growled at the thought of some creep tying his Lady up and pulled out his baton.

“Who are you calling?” Tikki asked. “Ladybug didn’t want Rena Rouge, Carapace, or Queen Bee involved in this…”

“I’m not calling the others, Tikki. We don’t have time to wait for them. I’m calling Lieutenant Raincomprix. This guy is human, right? He needs to be held accountable for this,” Chat Noir said. He dialed the number Sabrina’s father had given their class in case of emergencies and waited anxiously for the man to answer. With every ring, Chat felt his anxiety building. He didn’t have time to wait around. Ladybug didn’t have time for him to wait around. Just as he was about to hang up and go to town on this guy without a backup plan, his classmate’s father picked up.

“Hello? Who is this?” Lieutenant Raincomprix asked suspiciously. “How did you get this number?”

“Lieutenant Raincomprix! It’s Chat Noir. I hate to interrupt what must be your time with family, but we have an emergency,” Chat said quickly. “It’s urgent. A girl was abducted and is being held in an abandoned building in the 21st Arrondissement. From everything I can tell, this man is not an akuma. I’ll need police backup on this to arrest the man involved.”

“Of course, Chat Noir. Where exactly are you?” the lieutenant asked. Chat gave him the address, and he heard the scratching of a pen on paper. “I’ll have a police force there in less than 10 minutes.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have that long…” Chat Noir trailed off, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m going to go ahead and detain the guy. I’ll pass him off to you once you get here. I cannot risk this girl’s life by waiting around.”

“I’ll tell the force to hurry,” Lieutenant Raincomprix promised before hanging up. Once the line went dead, Chat peered down through the hole in the roof. The man was moving around now, and Chat caught a flash of moonlight on the steel blade of a knife.

“That’s it,” Chat growled. He jumped through the whole without another thought, landing soundlessly behind the man. He extended his baton and used it to sweep the man’s legs out from under him. He landed on his back with a grunt of pain, but he didn’t stay down long.

“Chat Noir, how nice of you to drop in.” The man rolled his eyes as he turned to face the superhero. “Though I must say I’m surprised to see you. Aren’t the Monday night patrols Ladybug’s responsibility? Does she have her yoyo wrapped around you so tightly that you’ll take on her patrols as well?”

“Let the girl go, and no one has to get hurt,” Chat warned. The man just laughed.

“Why would you want to protect this brat? She’s not worth protecting, and she’s certainly not worth the attention of a superhero.” 

Chat felt his blood boil. How dare he call her a brat? How _dare_ he say she wasn’t worth protecting? And how _**dare**_ he touch her in the first place?

“I protect ALL of Paris, not just the people YOU deem worthy,” he snapped. To prove his point, he swung his baton at the man and, being careful not to seriously injure his opponent, went on the offensive. 

To Chat’s surprise, the man was a good fighter. He managed to hold his own against the hero for a good few minutes. Granted, Chat was holding back, but the man almost cut him with the knife a few times. Chat was so focused on his partner and the snide remarks he had made that he did not say a single pun the entire fight. He finally saw an opening to break the guy’s arm and took it, using his baton to snap the man’s arm like a twig. The sudden pain forced the man to drop his knife, which Chat promptly kicked out of the way.

Police sirens distracted the man, leaving enough of an opening for Chat to swing his baton at his head. He was careful not to kill the man, but he secretly hoped he had given the creep a nasty concussion. The man dropped like a stone, and once Chat was sure he wasn’t getting up any time soon, he raced over to his Lady. He stopped short, however, when he recognized the now bloodied dress she was wearing.

_Adrien yawned as he sat down, feeling the strain of watching one too many episodes on Netflix the night before. He really had to stop binge-watching on school nights. Oh, but the show he had started was just too good to turn off. It was about three wealthy orphans and their strangely estranged uncle who kept trying to steal their fortune in more convoluted plans. In a strange way, it almost reminded him of his and his Lady’s situation with Hawkmoth, who kept trying more and more convoluted ways of stealing their Miraculous. He rested his head on the desk, using his arms as a pillow. A few minutes later, he heard the classroom door open and looked up, expecting to see Nino walking towards his seat next to him._

_It was not Nino. It was the last person he would expect to be early to class._

_“Marinette? What are you doing here so early?” Adrien asked, wincing when the girl jumped at his voice. She almost fell over but caught herself at the last second and took a breath to steady herself._

_“Oh, I was just awake early! That happens sometimes. I wake up early and get to class early,” she said, her voice pitched a little higher than usual and her smile a little forced. He noticed the bags under her eyes and frowned._

_“It hasn’t happened the entire time I’ve been at school with you,” he teased gently. She fidgeted with the hem of her dress. The action drew his attention down to her outfit. She was wearing a pale pink sundress with hand-embroidered white roses and butterflies dancing across the skirt. She had a white cardigan covering her shoulders, and in her hair, still tied into her usual pigtails, was a pink headband with a white butterfly on it. On her feet was a pair of white sandals, and he smiled when he saw the ladybug-inspired nail polish on her toes. “Did you stay up the whole night working on a design?”_

_“I—” she sighed, looking down at her feet, “no. It’s stupid though, nothing to worry about. Not that I think you would worry about it, or that I think you wouldn’t, it’s just not worth bringing up.”_

_“You can tell me, you know,” Adrien said gently. Marinette just shrugged and moved to sit at her desk. He frowned and turned to face her. “I won’t force you to tell me, Marinette. But we’re friends. You can tell me if you want someone to talk to.”_

_“It was just…nightmares,” she whispered. She wouldn’t look up at him. Instead, her attention was focused on her hands in her lap. “Something happened to a friend of mine and I couldn’t, or didn’t, do anything to help her, and as a result everyone else I care about got hurt and I was awake anyway and I just decided that I would come in early and see everyone walk into class today so I would know for sure it was just a bad dream…”_

_Adrien’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to say something, but Nino and Alya beat him to it._

_“Oh. M. G! You’re here on time for once!” Alya exclaimed, whipping out her cell phone. “This is totally going on the Ladyblog! Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Finally Early!”_

_“Alya!” Marinette threw her arms up to cover her face, fighting a smile. “I have no business being on the Ladyblog! Put your phone away!”_

Chat Noir looked down at the girl on the table, the memory from just that morning feeling like it happened years ago. The white embroidery was stained a vibrant red, a contrast to the darker shade soaking into the pink cotton of her skirt. Her white sandals were stained as well, and her cardigan was missing. The butterfly on her headband had broken in half, and her hair ties were barely holding her pigtails together anymore. The biggest difference from the morning, however, were the tears pooling in her bright blue eyes that would not meet his gaze.

“Oh, Marinette…”

The only answer he got was a choked-out sob as her tears finally flowed down her cheeks.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off: This chapter is longer than the first one, which I was going to apologize for but then remembered that tumblr post about writing free words and apologizing for giving extra free words than you expected and realized I personally love longer updates so I don't think I'm going to apologize for it. I am giving you a heads up though. This was supposed to be more or less the same length as the first chapter, but I wouldn't have been as satisfied if I had made it shorter so I hope you guys like longer updates too. (Also this is pretty heavy for me and I almost died trying to rewrite it which is why this update took so long. There are at least two spots where it's obvious I tried to lighten the mood as much as possible.)
> 
> Second: I know very little about how the legal system regarding rape works in France except for what google could tell me, which isn't much, so the legal aspect of this is going to be a slightly awkward blend of legit facts, how I understand it works in the US, stuff I think needs to happen based on a testimony I read from the Brock Turner case like two and a half years ago, and stuff that may or may not need to happen but made sense to me. If anyone knows how it actually works, please leave a comment and I'll fix that for later chapters. :-)
> 
> Finally, me venting: I am NEVER making Lieutenant Raincomprix a major character in another story ever again. He make small appearances, but I had to type out Lieutenant so many times I never want to have to write that word again. I had to learn how to type lieutenant for this fic. I have nightmares about it now. Next time, he's telling the kids to just call him Officer Roger, or Mr. Raincomprix, or something easy that doesn't involve typing out lieutenant regularly. My biggest regret in this story is that I didn't think to do that earlier. I might do it later, but I don't plan on having him be as important in later chapters.

Chat made quick work of untying the ropes around her wrist and legs. Once she was free, he lifted her off the table as gently as he could and backed up into the wall, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor with her curled up in his lap. He held her loosely, so she wouldn’t feel trapped and could get away if she decided she didn’t want to be touched. He could feel every shaky breath she took as she cried, and he rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her. Tikki flew onto her shoulder and nestled into the spot where her neck and her shoulder met, obviously giving her the closest thing to a hug the kwami was able to give, considering the situation. They sat like that for what felt like hours, Marinette crying into his shoulder and Chat resting his chin on top of her head and didn’t move until they finally heard Lieutenant Raincomprix announce that the building was surrounded. Marinette stiffened and held Chat tighter.

“They can’t say it was me, Chat. They can’t, he can’t…” she broke off suddenly. Her breathing quickened into rapid, panicked gasps, and Chat worried she was going to have a panic attack.

“Marinette, please breathe,” he said, trying to keep his voice low and soothing. He didn’t have a lot of experience helping people through panic attacks, but he knew she needed him to do his best here. “I won’t let them say it was you. You can stay anonymous. No one has to know unless you tell them who you are, but we have to tell Lieutenant Raincomprix what happened. It’s Sabrina’s dad, you’ve known him for years, right? He’ll help you.”

Marinette started shaking her head and pulled away from him, practically falling off of his lap. Tikki flew off her shoulder, the kwami’s expression morphing into one of concern. He let her go but refused to let her put too much distance between them. She was breathing so quickly now she sounded like she was choking on air.

“Marinette!” Tikki called, flitting into her Chosen’s line of sight. Marinette just seemed to stare right through her, as if she didn’t even exist. “Marinette, you have to calm down!”

“Marinette look at me,” Chat said gently. When she wouldn’t, he reached over and lifted her chin. She didn’t fight him, but she was also reluctant to meet his eye. He waited until she was willing to make eye contact and smiled when she finally did. “Okay, now take a few deep breaths. In, and out. In, and out. Just like this. Follow my lead.”

He demonstrated by taking a deep breath in, holding for a few seconds, and exhaling. It took a few tries for her to get it right, but she finally did. Tikki hovered nearby the entire time, letting Chat take the lead in calming the girl down.

“There. Much better.” Chat smiled softly at her. He reached out his hand, waiting for her to be ready to take it. When she did, he rubbed small circles on the back of her hand. “Marinette, I swear to you—on my Miraculous—that no one is going to find out what happened unless you are willing to tell them. I’ll tell Lieutenant Raincomprix to keep your identity secret and not tell any reporters your name or what happened here tonight, if that’s what you want. But we do need to tell them what happened so the guy who did this can never do it again. Is that okay?”

Marinette screwed her eyes shut as more tears flowed down her cheeks, but she nodded anyway. Chat smiled sadly and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

“Okay. Now, I’m going to go bring the guy who hurt you down to the police and tell Sabrina’s dad it’s okay to come in,” he said, standing slowly. She tightened her grasp on his hand and pulled him back down so hard he barely caught himself on the wall before he crashed down on top of her. He smoothed a hand through her hair, pushing a few messy strands off her face. “I know you don’t want me to leave, but I promise I’ll only be gone a minute. I just have to tell them you want to keep this as quiet as possible. If I don’t go soon, they’ll all come running in here and I don’t know how big the force Lieutenant Raincomprix brought with him is. It could be a lot of people to deal with all at once. I just want to go make sure that doesn’t happen, and then I promise you I’ll be right back. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

“No,” she whispered, and slowly let go of his hand.

“Tikki will keep you company until I come back,” he said, glancing up at the kwami. Tikki nodded and flew back to Marinette. She nuzzled against the girl’s cheek until Marinette offered a wobbly, broken smile. Then Chat turned and dragged the criminal out to the police.

“Lieutenant Raincomprix!” Chat called as he walked outside. The man rushed over with two additional officers who immediately took Michel away from the hero and cuffed him. For a moment, Lieutenant Raincomprix looked shocked to see who had been dragged out of the building, but then it passed, and he was all business again.

“Chat Noir, what happened?” the lieutenant asked. “You stayed in there for a really long time after I announced we were here. Is the girl okay? Who is she? We called an ambulance, but it hasn’t gotten here yet. Something got mixed up in the dispatch and it went to the wrong address. It’ll arrive soon.”

“Sir, I’ll answer all your questions, just, come inside,” Chat said. Lieutenant Raincomprix nodded and followed him inside. Chat stopped them just short of the room where he had left Marinette to explain. “Before I tell you anything, I want to ask that you keep this as quiet as you can. She doesn’t want anyone to know what happened to her, outside of the people who absolutely have to know, meaning she doesn’t want the press or your daughter or anyone outside of the people she’ll have to talk to tonight to find out about her identity. Is that possible?”

“If I’m right in what I think happened, then according to French law, if the victim wants to remain anonymous, she can,” Lieutenant Raincomprix promised. Chat let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding.

“Thank you,” he said. “The victim…it’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She’s in your daughter’s class at school? If I had to guess, I think she got caught in the akuma attack today and he grabbed her while she was walking back home.”

“It’s Marinette?” Lieutenant Raincomprix asked. Chat nodded, and a range of emotions flickered over the man’s face before he settled back on a more neutral expression. “That poor girl. I wish she’d have called me to give her a ride home, but I have a feeling Michel would have gotten to her eventually regardless…will she be okay to talk to me? I have to ask her a few questions before she can leave.”

“She hasn’t said much, so you may not get much information out of her tonight, but you can try.” Chat led the man to Marinette, who jumped when she heard them approach. 

Her eyes were glassy and her hair was loose around her shoulders, with some strands stuck to the tear tracks on her cheeks. Chat glanced around and found her hair ties and broken headband abandoned on the floor next to her. Tikki was nowhere to be seen, but Chat saw Marinette was clutching her purse tightly and realized that was probably Tikki’s usual hiding spot.

He noticed Marinette was trembling the same time Lieutenant Raincomprix did.

“Chat Noir, there should be some blankets in the squad cars,” Lieutenant Raincomprix said as he knelt down near Marinette with his hands outstretched. “Go get one, will you?”

“Yes, sir,” he said, and ran off to get a blanket from one of the officers. Chat could hear the ambulance siren in the distance as he walked back inside and hoped the police would manage to keep them from rushing in all at once.

By the time Chat got back to Marinette, Lieutenant Raincomprix had managed to calm her down enough to sit next to her. The way he was talking to her sounded more like how a father would comfort his daughter than how a policeman would question a victim, but Chat supposed that was more appropriate given the situation. Marinette seemed to be responding to it, anyway, even if she seemed to be giving mostly non-verbal answers. He wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, and she responded by grabbing his arm and pulling him down to sit next to her. She held his hand in a crushing grip after that, as if one of them was going to disappear at any moment.

“Marinette, you need to go to the hospital before going home, okay?” Lieutenant Raincomprix said. “There’s an ambulance on its way here. Once it gets here, someone will go with you and make sure you get home safely.”

“Chat Noir,” Marinette rasped out, surprising both the hero and the cop. “I want Chat to go with me.”

“Are you sure, Marinette?” Chat asked. When she nodded fiercely, the two of them turned to Lieutenant Raincomprix with pleading eyes. “Would that be possible?”

“I won’t stop you from going with her,” Lieutenant Raincomprix said eventually. “But I do need an actual cop there to deal with the legal side of this. I’ll go as well.”

“Thank you,” Chat said. Marinette smiled, but it came across as more of a grimace.

“Of course. Now, I’m going to go tell my officers to bring Michel to the station to be processed, and I’ll send an officer to your house, Marinette, to let your parents know what happened,” Lieutenant Raincomprix said as he stood up. “Do you want them to meet us at the hospital? Or would you rather they waited at home, and I’ll drive you back after the doctors release you?”

“Home,” Marinette whispered.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll come get you both when the ambulance arrives,” the lieutenant promised and left the building.

“Marinette,” Chat said, running the pad of his thumb across the back of her hand in soothing circles, “do you want to talk about this?”

“No,” she said, her voice stronger than it had been all night. Yet her strength wasn’t able to keep her voice from cracking as she continued, “I can’t, Chat. Not right now, not with you…I’m sorry…”

“Hey, please don’t apologize. I won’t make you talk about anything you don’t want to talk about, but I’m here whenever you feel ready,” Chat promised.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. She smiled at him, and it was a sad, watery attempt at a smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. Chat felt his heart do flips at the sight.

 _She needs a friend,_ he reminded himself. _Just a friend._

…

The irony of that phrase hit him like a load of bricks, and he could practically hear Plagg laughing at him from inside his Miraculous. He barely fought off the urge to roll his eyes.

~*~*~*~

The ambulance arrived within a few minutes, and Chat carried Marinette out to the waiting paramedics. They were hesitant to allow Chat to accompany her to the hospital, but Lieutenant Raincomprix managed to convince them. It may or may not have involved appointing Chat as an honorary police officer for the night to convince them, but they eventually agreed. Chat also overheard the Lieutenant insisting they radio the hospital and warn them about a sensitive case that has to remain as private and anonymous as possible.

The ambulance ride to the hospital was fairly uneventful. Lieutenant Raincomprix drove behind them. Chat Noir rode in the ambulance with Marinette, who held his hand tightly the whole ride. The emergency medics in the ambulance with them attempted to ask questions, but Marinette only gave basic answers. Once they arrived, the hospital staff brought them in through the staff entrance, and they used the staff corridors to avoid as many civilians that might be in the waiting rooms as possible. The doctors asked Chat Noir to wait in the hall with Lieutenant Raincomprix while they ran their tests, so he spent what felt like an hour pacing restlessly. He didn’t stop until he overheard a conversation between two nurses at the end of the hall.

“Do you think she’s Ladybug?” one of them asked. The other scoffed at the idea.

“Seriously, Mikayla? Do you think Ladybug would let herself get in a situation like that?” he asked.

“It can happen to anyone, Adam,” she retorted, crossing her arms across her chest. She looked away from him, seemingly staring at nothing. “Even superheroes.”

He muttered something Chat Noir couldn’t hear, but based on the man’s expression, he should consider himself lucky Chat didn’t hear it. “Why would you even think it was her, anyway?”

“Her hair color matches, and she looked like she had the right body-type to be Ladybug,” Mikayla said. “Besides, who else would Chat Noir lurk around the hallways for? And I didn’t see any pictures online of Ladybug’s patrol tonight.”

Adam at least looked thoughtful at that, so Chat decided it was time for him to intervene and shut down the rumor before it could grow. It wasn’t safe for anyone else to know Ladybug’s true identity, and rumors like this could spread like wildfire. He walked over, a fierce expression burning under his mask.

“The girl that I am protecting tonight has asked to remain completely anonymous,” Chat Noir said bluntly. The nurses looked at him sheepishly. “That includes rumors as to her identity, so I’d appreciate it if you respected her wishes before your theories as to who she is spreads. I’m here because I was the one who found her and called the cops to arrest the guy who hurt her, and because she asked me to stick around. And even if she was Ladybug, we keep our identities secret for a reason. It’s safer for our families and the people we care about that way. After all she’s been through tonight, please don’t put her and her family in more danger by starting rumors that she’s Ladybug.”

“Sorry, Chat Noir. We’ll stop,” Mikayla said sincerely. She nudged Adam’s side, and he muttered out an apology as well.

“Thank you,” Chat said, and walked off. He wasn’t sure if that would help keep things quiet, but he didn’t think it would hurt. He could only hope it would help.

~*~*~*~

“Lieutenant Raincomprix,” the doctor said as he stepped out of the room that he and the other nurses had ushered Marinette into. “I’m going to go ahead and release her. Are her parents here to sign the release forms?”

“So, she’s okay?” Chat asked, standing up so quickly he knocked over the chair he was sitting in. He grimaced and fixed the chair while the lieutenant stood up.

“She asked that they wait at home. I’ll sign to release her, if that’s okay?” Lieutenant Raincomprix said.

“It’s uncommon, and I would normally insist she had a direct relative here to sign her out but given the circumstances I think we can look past it. I’ll just need you to pass on the message to her parents to bring her back in in a few days to run the last few tests that we can’t do tonight,” the doctor said. “As for your question, Chat Noir…she’s been putting on a brave face, but she’s still in shock and needs time to process. I think she would be better off doing so at home, especially since her injuries aren’t pressing enough to warrant keeping her for observation. She was lucky you found her when you did.”

 _Not lucky enough,_ Chat thought bitterly, but kept it to himself.

The doctor led the lieutenant away, and Chat snuck into Marinette’s room. The nurses that were attending her had all stepped out, so she was alone, staring at nothing. Chat knocked lightly, wincing as she startled and focused her gaze on him. Her face was red and puffy from crying, and the attempt at a brave smile she gave him broke his heart.

“Hey, Princess,” he said gently, “mind if I join you?”

“I don’t mind,” she answered, making room for him to sit on the bed if he wanted. He walked over and sat at the foot of the bed, facing her. “Is Lieutenant Raincomprix still here?”

“Yep. Rogercop went to go sign you out, so you can go home soon,” Chat said, trying to get her to smile. She tried to laugh, likely more for his sake than for hers, but it didn’t brighten her expression the way he was hoping it would.

“Will you come with us? When he drives me home? I’m sure my parents would like to thank you, and I…” she trailed off, fidgeting with the blanket covering her legs.

“Of course, I’ll go with you,” Chat promised. “What kind of knight in shining leather would I be if I abandoned my princess when she needed me?”

“Thank you,” she murmured, then looked at her bag on the side table. “Tikki is hiding in my purse. She still needs to eat…”

“She eats cookies, right?” Chat asked. Marinette nodded. “Well, you live in a bakery. It shouldn’t be too hard to find cookies there.”

“I should have brought more cookies with me,” Marinette said, a frown marring her features. “If I had brought more cookies…”

“Hey, don’t think like that,” Chat reprimanded, careful to keep his tone gentle but firm. “None of this is your fault. Do you realize that? I don’t care what you might think, or what that asshole said, or what anyone else thinks. None of this was your fault.”

Marinette just shrugged in response. Chat set his jaw, determined to make her understand she isn’t to blame, but Lieutenant Raincomprix walked in before he could say anything.

“I’ll bring you home whenever you’re ready, Marinette,” he said. “Chat, I assume you’ll be coming with us?”

“Yes, sir,” Chat replied, climbing off the bed and reaching out a hand to help Marinette up. She almost took it but pulled back at the last minute with a shake of her head.

“Just, give me a minute,” she said, taking a deep breath, “please?”

“Of course,” Chat nodded, and walked towards the door.

“We’ll be right outside when you’re ready,” Lieutenant Raincomprix said. When Marinette nodded, he shut the door.

She came out about five minutes later. Chat took one look at her and wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and never let anything hurt her again. The dress he knew she had spent hours embroidering by hand was ruined: ripped and dirty and soaked in blood that would only come out if they cleaned the stain immediately. If Lieutenant Raincomprix had to take the dress as evidence, there was little to no way they would be able to clean it properly. Her wrists and legs were bruised, her hair was a mess of knots, and her cheeks had visible tear stains running down them. But what broke his heart the most was her eyes: her beautiful, bright blue eyes that he had fallen so deeply in love with were lifeless and dull and red and puffy. The sparkle he was so used to seeing even when she was stressed or scared was gone, replaced with tired shadows forming under her eyes. Like the rest of her frame, they seemed smaller, as if they were attempting to protect themselves by drawing as little attention as possible. He held out the police blanket they still had on hand and draped it over her shoulders, and then they made their way down to Lieutenant Raincomprix’s car. 

The drive to the Dupain-Cheng residence was quick and silent. When they finally arrived, Marinette’s parents were already at the side door to greet them. They had barely stepped out of the car door when Marinette’s mother was guiding her upstairs, leaving her father to talk to the lieutenant and the local superhero.

“Lieutenant Raincomprix,” Mr. Dupain greeted as they approached the door. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you around here.”

“I wish I was here under better circumstances, Tom,” Lieutenant Raincomprix replied, shaking his hand.

“Chat Noir, why don’t you go upstairs? The living room is the first door on the right when you reach the landing,” Mr. Dupain said, turning to the teenager. “I’ll be up after I talk to the lieutenant.”

Chat nodded and made his way up the stairs. He tried not to eavesdrop, he really did, but he had a bad habit of sneaking up and spying on people anyway and couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.

“It was Michel Boivin, Cheryl’s older brother,” Lieutenant Raincomprix said.

“I can’t believe he’s back,” Mr. Dupain said angrily, “and to attack my daughter like that…”

“He’s been arrested, and with any luck my officers will have already processed him by now. There was enough evidence from the crime scene to warrant holding him for a few days, but I’ll have to come back and get a proper statement from Marinette to get any charges to stick. Probably Chat Noir as well, since he was the one that apprehended Michel for us. I’ll give her as much time as I can, but Tom, this will more than likely involve a trial if she does decide to press charges, which I fully believe she should. From everything I understand about what happened…I think he planned on killing her. If he doesn’t stay locked up, he’ll probably try again.”

“Will the charges stick if it goes to trial? He needs to go to jail, but I need to know if she’s fighting a losing battle before I let her go through something like that.”

“They should stick. Marinette is a good kid that got caught in a bad situation. I’m sure they’ll try to pin it on her, but I think her defense would be airtight enough that she should win the fight. If they need other people to comment on her character, her friends and teachers, hell anyone that knows her should be enough to tip the court in her favor.”

“Yes, but if she can pull a character witness in her favor, can’t the other side pull people that might be against her? There are girls in her class that Marinette doesn’t get along with, like Chloe, or that Lila girl, or even your daughter, Lieutenant.”

“Sabrina wouldn’t do something like that to Marinette. As for Chloe and Lila…that’s two people, Tom. And everyone in their class knows Michel, so if we need character witnesses against him, we have way more than two people. It should be enough.”

“If you say so…”

“She’ll be okay, Tom. She’s strong. She’ll recover. Call me if you need anything.”

“We will. Thank you, Roger.”

Chat Noir heard the door shut as the Lieutenant left and tried to pretend like he hadn’t just heard everything when Mr. Dupain finally came back inside. The man sighed and rubbed his eyes, obviously exhausted.

“How about some cocoa?” he asked, shutting the door to the apartment behind him.

“That sounds nice,” Chat said. “Is there anything I can help with?”

“Not really, but if you want, I can show you how to make it,” Mr. Dupain said, waving him into the kitchen. “It’s a family recipe, passed down through a couple of generations, and one of Marinette’s favorites.”

“I’d love to learn how,” Chat said, excitement bubbling up inside of him despite the circumstances. When was the last time he did anything like this with a parent? He’d certainly never made hot chocolate with his father, and his mother had been gone for so long…

For a while, they just focused on making cocoa. Mr. Dupain taught him the recipe, which was surprisingly simple with only a few ingredients, and the best way to melt the chocolate when making it from scratch (by mixing it in after the milk and cream and sugar mixture has heated, but not boiled). He learned that powdered sugar works better than regular sugar because it dissolves easier, and he found out that powdered sugar is just regular sugar that’s been ground up and mixed with a small amount of cornstarch. Which wasn't an especially important fact to learn, but he was curious, and Mr. Dupain knew the answer. He also learned how to make roses out of fresh whipped cream…not that he was very good at it, but he tried, and Mr. Dupain encouraged him to keep trying until he was satisfied with the result. He was on his third attempt (and was steadily improving) when Mr. Dupain finally stopped avoiding the situation.

“Chat Noir, I don’t know how you found her, but I cannot thank you enough,” he said, taking a breath to steady himself. “I don’t know what her mother and I would have done if…”

“I would never let that happen to her,” Chat promised. “I know how special she is, and I consider her a good friend of mine. I just wish I had gotten there sooner…”

“What happened tonight wasn’t your fault, Chat Noir. You got there in time to save her life, and you stuck around when she asked, and you’re still here for her even though it’s late and I’m sure you have to be up again in a few hours for school. There’s a reason you’re her favorite hero, Chat. I don’t want you to beat yourself up over something that you couldn’t help,” Mr. Dupain said.

“I’m just worried about her,” Chat admitted. Mr. Dupain smiled bitterly.

“I know. You’re welcome here any time you want to check up on her,” he said. He put some homemade cookies on a plate on the counter just as Mrs. Cheng walked in with Marinette.

Her hair was still damp from her bath, but it was clean and freshly brushed. She was wearing a fluffy pink robe over her pyjamas, and Chat swore he saw Tikki hiding in the pocket. She sat on one of the stools at the counter as her father set down one of the cocoa mugs with Chat’s whipped cream rose on top. She cupped the mug between her hands and just stared at it while her father passed out the other two mugs and grabbed his own.

“Marinette,” Mrs. Cheng said after a while, breaking the relative silence in the room. The girl jumped slightly and focused on her mother. “We think you should stay home from school for a few days. Just take the rest of the week off and see how you feel next Monday. I’m sure one of your friends can bring your homework for you so you won’t fall too behind, and if not, I don’t think your teachers would mind if we explained the situation.”

“I don’t want them to know…” Marinette said quietly, looking back down at her barely touched drink. The whipped cream rose was halfway melted into the hot cocoa already.

“They don’t have to know if you don’t want them to, sweetheart,” Mr. Dupain said. “We can just tell them you’re sick. A stomach bug, maybe, or the flu. We could even say you hurt your leg on the stairs if you wanted, and that it’s not serious but the doctors don’t want you walking around for a few days.”

“And I could bring you your homework,” Chat suggested. “I have a friend in your class that I could get the assignments from, and he wouldn’t ask too many questions if I asked him not to say anything.”

“Okay,” Marinette said, looking up at her partner. “Thank you.”

“Of course, Princess,” he said, smiling as he took a sip of his hot cocoa. He caught Marinette’s lips twitch up into a small smirk as he set his cup down. It didn’t reach her eyes, but it was the most familiar her expression had been all night. “What?”

“You have a little,” she trailed off, but gestured to her upper lip to indicate what the problem was. He touched the spot she indicated and laughed when his gloved fingers came back white.

“Thanks,” he said, grabbing a napkin to wipe the cream off his face. She nodded once and focused on her drink again.

“You should probably get some sleep, Marinette,” her mom said gently. Her eyes widened, and Chat saw a flash of panic in them.

“I don’t want to be alone…” she murmured, looking up at Chat pleadingly.

“Maybe Chat would be willing to stay with you until you fall asleep?” Mr. Dupain asked. Chat blinked in surprise but nodded.

“Of course I would,” he said, and was surprised when Marinette nodded fiercely. 

She drank a little more of her hot cocoa and abandoned her mug, wrapping her arms around herself tightly as she slid off the stool and made her way upstairs. Chat grabbed a couple of cookies with a sheepish smile and followed her up. He noticed the lights were already off and since she was nowhere to be seen, she was probably already in bed. He eased the trap door shut carefully.

“Bugaboo? I brought up some cookies for Tikki,” he said quietly. He heard a muffled noise from her bed and a few seconds later, the red kwami he had met that night flew down to take the cookies from him.

“Thank you, Chat Noir,” she said, a sad smile on her face. Chat wanted to comfort her somehow but realized he had no idea how. After a moment to think about it, he decided he was better off focusing on Marinette. He walked over to the staircase leading up to her bed.

“Princess? Can I come up and join you?” he asked hesitantly. He knew she wanted him nearby, but how close was too close tonight? All he heard in response was a muffled noise that was too quiet to understand and decided he would risk it and go up to her bed. If she didn’t want him that close, he would give her space.

When she realized he was at the foot of her bed, she moved closer to the wall to give him space to lie down next to her. Once he did, she latched onto him like a lifeline. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer as she began to cry, and just held her as her tears grew into sobs that wracked her whole body. He murmured soothing words that he remembered his mother saying to him when he would cry, and eventually he felt her relax in his arms. He didn’t dare move until he was sure her breathing had leveled out and she had fallen asleep. Only then did he ease out of her grip and hesitate, unsure of what to do next.

_Just leaving feels wrong…are her parents still up?_

He listened carefully. Sure enough, he could hear the soft sounds of the tv playing in the living room downstairs and decided he should probably talk to her parents before leaving. It was almost dawn, so he would have to be home soon and would be exhausted at school that day, but there wasn’t any point in trying to get home to sleep anyway. He walked downstairs, and Mr. Dupain motioned for him to join them on the couch. Mrs. Cheng turned off the tv as he sat down.

“She’s asleep,” he said, relief clear in his voice.

“Thank you, Chat Noir,” Mrs. Cheng said, smiling tiredly at him, “for everything.”

“Of course,” he said, then hesitated. He had to know… “Who is Michel Boivin?”

“A horrible boy,” Mrs. Cheng said immediately, her grey eyes sharpening to steel. “Marinette was friends with his little sister, but there was always something wrong with him. I heard rumors that he would abuse his girlfriends, and he never showed up to pick up his sister with the same one more than twice. I think he was abusing her too, when their parents weren’t around, but I never found out for sure. I was so afraid of letting Marinette get too close to him, or possibly being alone with him…I never let her go to their house. Whenever she wanted to spend time with his sister, I insisted they hang out here, where I would know they were safe. We thought he’d left Paris ages ago, but now…”

“Wait, he has a sister? Is she in Marinette’s class?” Chat asked. He didn’t recognize the last name, but maybe they didn’t have the same last name…and if she was still at school, maybe he could ask her to help Marinette.

“Had a sister,” Mr. Dupain corrected. “Her name was Cheryl. She died two years ago. We all accused Michel of pushing her off her balcony, but since there was no evidence and he told the cops she committed suicide, they couldn’t prove that he did or didn’t do it and had to call it a tragic accident. We thought he left for university after her funeral and never thought we’d hear from him again.”

Chat paused for a moment to process that. Michel was a monster, maybe even worse than Hawkmoth, who is a literal supervillain. At least the damage Hawkmoth caused could be fixed by Ladybug’s cure. If Chat ever saw him again…he might just find out what happens when he uses his cataclysm on a person.

They sat in tense silence for a while, all of them secretly expecting to hear Marinette wake up from a nightmare at any moment. When he finally had to leave, or else risk Natalie discovering he didn’t spend the night in his room, he went back into Marinette’s room to leave through her trap door. Once in her room, he found her Chat Noir doll, wrote a note saying he would come back to check on her at lunch that day, and left them together on the pillow next to her. Finally, he waved goodbye to Tikki and rushed home, arriving just minutes before his alarm went off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be pretty intense as well, but there are going to be some funny parts because two intensely angsty chapters is my limit before I spontaneously combust and just die. Mainly from Alya breaking the fourth wall. Also, Hawkmoth appears next chapter! Who do you think will get akumatized?
> 
> As for the random facts about hot chocolate and powdered sugar...I did research, okay? I looked up a French hot chocolate recipe (it's an Americanized version from a blog so not super authentic but it was authentic enough for me) and then looked up WHY powdered sugar was used in the recipe and I have a theory that it acts as a bit of a thickener in a drink because of the cornstarch but I couldn't find that stated online so it didn't get put in the story. Anyway, you now know more than you might have known before reading this chapter, so you can't say fanfic has never taught you anything!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is slightly shorter than I had expected, but if I made it any longer it would have been long enough for two chapters at least, and I have things I want to expand on more in the next chapters so I felt it was better to cut it off where I did (this chapter was roughly 7 pages, and just as a heads up, I plan on each chapter being like 8-10 pages long on Word). So, here's Tuesday morning, lol.
> 
> This chapter has a bit of a different tone to the first two. The setting changes three times in this, so each time it focuses on a different set of characters and emotions. Also, there's a bit of humor and fluff in this because two angsty chapters in a row is my limit before I die, so Alya breaks the fourth wall and then there is a hidden pun in Hawkmoth's monologue that I want to see if you can find! (I'll put it in the author's note of the next chapter, so let me know if you find it in the comments!)
> 
> Oh! Quick warning, there's a Mayura spoiler at the end of this chapter. So if you haven't seen it and are avoiding spoilers...maybe don't read the last full paragraph (starting with Elsewhere). I think that's the only spoiler there is.

Tuesday proved to be a dreary, grey, cloudy day. Adrien had dragged himself to school and was sitting at his desk, his leg bouncing rapidly under the table. He felt like he was being fueled by nerves and left-over adrenaline from the night before. Since no one else was in the classroom, he took advantage of the quiet to go over everything that had happened in the last twelve hours.

In a very uncharacteristic move, Plagg had not uttered a single word of complaint in regard to how long Adrien had held his transformation for. The kwami had a sad look in his green eyes that Adrien couldn’t get out of his mind. It wouldn’t even go away when Adrien offered Plagg his favorite camembert that morning before leaving for school. He supposed a part of the kwami’s unusual mood was how distraught Adrien had been, and another part was from his connection with Tikki and how drained she was…but Plagg knew Marinette as Ladybug. He had talked to her and saved her when Adrien couldn’t transform to help her defeat Style Queen. Adrien suspected Plagg cared for Marinette more than he wanted to admit.

Adrien let his thoughts drift to Marinette’s parents. They were devastated. They were clearly trying to be strong for her sake, but the look in her father’s eye when he thanked Chat Noir for finding her…it reminded Adrien of the way his father looked when his mother first disappeared, before he gave Adrien and the rest of the world the cold shoulder. Not to mention, Adrien knew how tight-knit Marinette’s family was, and how protective they became over each other and even Marinette’s friends.

He was glad he had been allowed to stay by Marinette’s side, and he thought her parents were grateful he had been there. They didn’t question his presence at all, now that he thought about it. Did they know Marinette was Ladybug? He didn’t think so…he figured they would have said something if they did, or Tikki would have come out of Marinette’s pocket. Then, did they know Marinette and Chat were friends? Mr. Dupain had mentioned something about Chat being Marinette’s favorite superhero, which Adrien couldn’t quite believe. He supposed it would be weird to be your own favorite hero, and he knew Queen Bee wasn’t Marinette’s favorite of the heroes for obvious reasons, but what about Rena Rouge? Or Carapace? Marinette had chosen them herself…he had to remind himself that when she needed a hero, she sent her kwami to find him. Even though her kwami knew the identities of the other heroes as well, Marinette wanted him to be the one to help her. That had to mean something.

On that note, his thoughts had circled fully back to Marinette, but instead of focusing on what she had gone through, he thought over everything he knew about her. Marinette was Ladybug! She was his brave, beautiful, kind, and clever partner that he had been saving Paris with for a year! She was willing to see the best in people and offer them second chances, and she was determined to protect the city from Hawkmoth, but that didn’t stop her from joking around with him when they weren’t in immediate danger. He was head-over-tail in love with her, and now that he knew Ladybug was Marinette, he only loved her more. Marinette was the most popular girl in their class. She found a solution to every problem thrown at her. She was class president! She was willing to get in trouble to help her friends! Not to mention her bravery! She had faced down Evillustrator outside of her suit before, and he remembered she didn’t seem to be afraid when her own grandmother turned into Befana on her birthday. And she was so creative and talented! She won his father’s fashion contest with her feathered derby hat, and had gotten praised by Chloe’s mom, who had wanted to take her to New York to improve as a designer! He had always thought she was cute, and every guy in their class seemed to have had a crush on her at one point or another…

Unfortunately, now he didn’t stand a chance at getting her to love him back. When she was just Ladybug, he could convince them both that he was cool enough for her. At least then, they were both superheroes. They were on equal footing. But now? He just found out that his Lady had hidden perfectly in plain sight! How could one person be so perfect? And she already had a crush on someone in her class, who was foolish enough to not return her feelings…he began going over the names of the guys in their class, trying to figure out which one she liked. Maybe Kim? Kim liked that girl from his swim club, Ondine, and before that he liked Chloe, so as far as Adrien knew he hadn’t had a crush on Marinette…

“Hey, Sunshine! Did you get akumatized today or something?” Alya asked, her voice snapping him out of his thoughts. His brows knitted together as he turned his attention to her as she walked in with Nino.

“Do I look like I was akumatized?” he asked slowly. Alya just shrugged.

“Maybe Hawkmoth decided to go for something more, I don’t know, subtle than his usual designs?” she asked, taking her usual seat diagonally behind him.

“But why do you think I was akumatized?” Adrien asked, his frown deepening. Nino held out his hand for a fist bump, one Adrien mindlessly returned. He didn’t notice Nino’s frown as he sat down.

“Well, it’s a gloomy, cloudy day outside, but there is no rain in the forecast for today. Then we walk into class and see our friend—who is normally a walking ray of sunshine—all gloomy and sad like the weather outside. So, there are only three logical conclusions,” Alya said, going full reporter as she ticked off her conclusions on her fingers. “The first: you were very subtly turned into a weather controlling akuma and you’re just biding your time before you attack at the perfect moment. I really hope that one is not the case because I would hate to see you akumatized. Plus, Hawkmoth has tried that already and failed, and he should really be trying out some new material. The second: you are secretly a woodland pixie that can control the weather and have decided, for some unknown reason that I may never understand, to leave your forest and attend Collège Françoise Dupont, possibly to learn about the human world, much like why Ariel chose to leave the ocean. That’s actually my favorite conclusion of the three, and maybe the most likely. That leaves the third conclusion I have come to: your emotions mirroring the weather is just some cliché symbolism in an overly detailed story of tragedy, pining, and love.”

“Alya, come back to reality for a second,” Adrien started, rolling his eyes in fond exasperation at his friend’s rampant creativity. He decided to emphasize his point by mimicking the way she ticked off the conclusions she’d come to. “First, I am not akumatized. After seeing the usual akuma designs, I think it’s safe to assume whoever Hawkmoth is does not understand the concept of subtle. Except for Vanisher, but I really think he just got lucky with Sabrina’s akumatization, and therefore Vanisher is an outlier and should not be counted. Second, woodland pixies aren’t real, as far as I am aware, and I highly doubt one would want to come to a human school where classes are regularly interrupted by a supervillain who manipulates emotional teenagers. As for your third conclusion…I actually have no idea how to respond that.”

“Okay, well whether or not you were akumatized, our reality has men turning children into monsters so I’m sorry if I want to imagine woodland pixies might really exist,” Alya grumbled. “And for the record, that is exactly what you would have said if you were a woodland pixie, so I’m keeping my eye on you.”

To emphasize her point, she pointed two fingers at her eyes and then turned them towards Adrien with a fierce expression. The two boys just rolled their eyes at her antics. The action caused Adrien to look at Marinette’s empty seat, which he knew would be empty for at least the rest of the week, and he sighed dejectedly. Nino caught the look on his face and elbowed him.

“Dude, seriously, are you okay?” Nino asked. Adrien just rested his forehead against the desk. He couldn’t tell them what was really upsetting him, since he technically wasn’t supposed to know what happened to Marinette, but he had to tell them something. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, he had the perfect excuse fresh in his mind to distract them.

“Yeah, if you ignore the fact that I’m in love with a girl who is way out of my league and that I don’t stand a chance with,” Adrien grumbled, focusing all of his emotions on those words in an effort to be rid of them. He felt a pencil poke into his shoulder and turned to see Alya leaning over her desk towards him.

“Who do you think is out of your league? Did someone say something to make you think you weren’t good enough for them? Do I need to defend your honor in a duel?” Alya demanded. Adrien quickly shook his head no.

“No, no violence,” he said quickly. “No one needs to defend my honor.”

“Okay, but who are you in love with?” Nino asked slowly. He raised an eyebrow when he caught Adrien’s green eyes flick towards Marinette’s seat.

 _He couldn’t possibly be this dense, could he?_ Nino thought. There was no way Adrien actually thought he didn’t have a chance with—

“Marinette,” Adrien said quietly. He jumped slightly when he heard Alya’s pencil clatter to the floor.

 _Apparently, he could,_ Nino thought sarcastically. His best friend was one of the smartest people in their class, but he was practically a brick wall when it came to social interactions.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet sunshine child!” Alya cried, pulling Adrien into the most awkward hug of his life. She’d practically thrown herself across the table at a very precarious angle, and while Nino was amazed that she hadn’t fallen, he was fully prepared to catch her if and when she did fall. “You are too good for this world, too pure!”

“And apparently too clueless,” Nino snarked. He rolled his eyes as his girlfriend began to pet his best friend’s hair.

“Wait, what?” Adrien asked, carefully pulling away from Alya. “What are you guys talking about?”

“You really have no clue?” Nino asked. Adrien just shook his head, a blank look on his face. “Just, talk to Marinette when she gets here. She should be able to clear things up.”

“Marinette isn’t coming to school today,” Adrien said before he could stop himself.

“She didn’t tell me anything,” Alya said slowly. She pulled out her phone, likely to check for a message Adrien knew didn’t exist.

He had to think fast. Marinette didn’t want anyone, including him, to know why she wouldn’t be at school that week. Besides, even if Alya did know why Marinette wasn’t in school, Adrien wouldn’t because it was Chat Noir that helped her. He wracked his brain, trying to come up with a plausible lie, and latched onto the first one he thought of.

“Oh, I um, when I got here, I walked past Mr. Damocles’ office and I overheard him talking to Marinette’s mom on the phone. He said he would let her teachers know she wouldn’t be at school this week and to tell her he hoped she feels better soon,” Adrien lied smoothly. He could only hope they wouldn’t call him out on it. “She must have gotten sick or something last night.”

Alya squinted at him suspiciously. Her phone dinged with a notification, and she looked at it hopefully before locking the phone again, muttering something about an email she would check later.

“She’s probably still asleep, babe,” Nino said. “She already sleeps through her alarm on a regular basis. If she’s sick, she’s probably just trying to sleep it off.”

 _Hopefully Marinette’s still asleep,_ Adrien thought. He could hardly wait until lunch, when he would get a chance to transform and go check on her.

~*~*~*~

Marinette was not asleep. She had been awake for hours thanks to a vague nightmare she’d had but couldn’t remember once she opened her eyes. She was curled up in a nest of blankets on her bed with Tikki and her Chat Noir doll for company. The note Chat had left the night before was crumpled up in her fist. She didn’t know what time it was, but her kitty had promised to come back and check on her when he had his lunch break, and she knew he would. Chat Noir never broke his promises.

Eventually, she emerged from her cocoon and trudged downstairs to grab a glass of water from the kitchen. As she was walking back upstairs, she noticed her maman had left out a plate of pastries for her on the counter. She brought the plate upstairs with her and set it on her desk as she sat down. She looked up at the pictures taped to her wall and a wave of pain crashed down on her out of nowhere.

Everywhere she turned, someone she loved was staring back at her. Adrien was watching her from most of them, his green eyes seeming blissfully unaware of her pain. From others, Alya was grinning from ear to ear, or Nino was giving her a thumbs up, or her parents were smiling proudly…but in all of them, her friends were happy. In the group photos, she was happy. But they didn’t know what happened to her, and she didn’t want them to know what happened to her. What if they treated her differently? What if they didn’t understand? What if they treated her like she was made of glass or pitied her or hated her, or they grew distant and just stopped talking all together?

What if they turned on her?

A photo of Ladybug and Chat Noir she downloaded from the Ladyblog caught her eye and upset her even more.

How could she still be Ladybug after this?

A million worries crashed around in her mind like a hurricane, the winds of which carried tears and pain and anger stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. Her pictures were laughing at her, mocking her, and she screamed at them to just leave her alone. She began to rip them off her walls one by one. Torn photographs and posters and pieces of paper floated around her head to settle at her feet, but she couldn’t see any of them through her tears. Her pens and pencils and markers got thrown across the room, along with all of her books and notebooks that were within her reach. The only thing she didn’t do was throw her computer, although she was sorely tempted in the moment, and she would have flipped her desk completely if it wasn’t so heavy.

The few things that were salvaged from her desk were only safe because Tikki had managed to get them away from her first. She saved the photographs that she knew were Marinette’s favorites, and she hid the Lucky Charm bracelet Adrien had given Marinette for her birthday. Her kwagatama was safe for the moment, since Marinette didn’t keep it on her desk. She also did her best to rescue Marinette’s sketchbook, but it was too heavy and all she was really able to do was knock it behind the desk where Marinette couldn’t reach it. Tikki decided she would just ask Chat Noir to rescue it later.

Soon enough, the walls surrounding Marinette’s desk were completely bare, save for the bits of tape that had remained attached to the wall when the photos they had secured were ripped apart. Her voice was hoarse from screaming and her fingers were covered in paper cuts. Her screams slowly morphed into sobs that shook her whole body, and she didn’t have the energy to stay standing anymore. She collapsed on the floor, surrounded by a ring of shredded photographs, overturned books, and stray pencils. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them, crying until her tears ran dry and all that was left was pain.

~*~*~*~

A few blocks away, Hawkmoth was waiting. The window opened to illuminate the dark room, startling the kaleidoscope of glowing white butterflies that surrounded him. A dark smile marred his features as he felt the first tendrils of someone’s pain seep through the akuma-sized hole in the glass.

“So much pain for such a small girl,” he said with a dark chuckle. He inhaled deeply, tasting the air in the same way that a wine snob would savor the scent of a fine wine at a party. “It’s powerful, too…someone really did a number on her emotions. Betrayal, heartbreak, rage…perfect. Her pain will feed her power, and her loveliness will mesmerize all of Paris until even Ladybug and Chat Noir are left seeing red!”

He held out one hand, and one of the white butterflies landed on his palm. He cupped it in his hands to infuse it with his evil intent. Once the butterfly had darkened to a nightmarish shade of purple, he sent the butterfly to the window.

“Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize her!” he cried. He laughed and twirled his cane while visions of the destruction his new akuma would cause danced through his mind’s eye. He would call her Daesthetic, a name he was almost embarrassingly proud of, since it combined the perfect mix of death and aesthetic he was hoping for. He pictured the way she would cause Paris to riot over who loved her the most, and how she would hypnotize Ladybug and Chat Noir and whatever other heroes showed up to fight her into turning on each other and giving up their Miraculouses. The battle would be glorious and over before it even began, and he would finally get his wish. In all of his fantasies, however, he did not plan for the butterfly to purify itself as soon as it flew through the window.

Which is precisely what happened.

“Wait, what?” he asked, frowning as he watched the pristine white butterfly no longer under his control flutter away happily. “How—what—huh? What the fuck just happened?”

He glowered at the window. He could still feel the intense pain swirling around him, so he knew she hadn’t overcome her negative emotions so quickly…

“Whatever. We’ll just try this again, I guess,” he declared, holding out his hand for another akuma. 

A new butterfly landed on his palm and he quickly corrupted it with his intent. He attempted to make this new butterfly even more evil than the first one had been, which was the only thing he could think of to make sure he could keep this one under his control. He laughed as he sent it off, saying something about how he would get her this time…

…only to splutter in confusion when this butterfly purified itself as well.

“What the fuck?” he demanded, yelling into the mostly empty room. “Dark wings, fall!”

A flash of purple light filled the room as the transformation fell, and seconds later Gabriel Agreste stood in Hawkmoth’s place. His face was contorted in rage, causing the little butterfly kwami to shrink away in fear.

“How is this possible, Nooroo?” he shouted, gesturing angrily at the window. “Why are my akumas purifying themselves?”

“I, I don’t know, Master. Honest,” Nooroo said quietly. Suddenly, the kwami realized there were two possible situations where the akumas would not reach anyone. Could he get away with only saying one reason?

“Well, there is one possible explanation,” Nooroo continued slowly. He hoped that this explanation would distract his master enough that he wouldn’t press the issue any further. “Your akumas don’t just target people when they are at their most vulnerable. They target the ones that are, emotionally, the most willing to give in to your control. There has to be a small part of them that you can grasp onto to convince them to give in. This girl may not be open to your control.”

“But how could this be possible? This has never happened before!” Mr. Agreste raged, looking for something he could throw. He would have to ask Natalie to put a table or several in his lair, so he could flip them across the room when his plans failed. Which, despite his determination, was beginning to seem like the inevitable outcome. Which was _really_ starting to piss him off.

“Master,” Nooroo started hesitantly. He had a theory as to what happened to the girl but wasn’t sure of the best way to phrase it. Unfortunately, he had seen this happen before, so he was almost positive his theory was correct. “It’s possible that this girl’s pain comes from some kind of loss of control. Maybe someone took something from her without her consent or forced her to do something, and severely hurt her in the process. She likely wouldn’t be willing to give up her control to you no matter how you tried to persuade her…”

“Without her consent? Do you mean someone…” he trailed off as he realized what the kwami was implying, and then his anger returned full force and he was yelling again, “what the fuck she’s like fourteen! I’m pretty sure she was the designer girl from my son’s class at school! What was her name…Marionette! No, Marinette? Something like that…either way, who the fuck would do something like that? I thought I was Paris’s supervillain, but even I wouldn't go that far!”

Elsewhere in the Agreste mansion, Nathalie could hear her boss yelling from his secret lair but chose to ignore it. There wasn’t much she could do unless he akumatized her again or she used the Peacock miraculous, but after how sick it made her the last time…she did not get paid enough to deal with her supervillain boss and his constant temper tantrums due to the actions of teenagers.

Nathalie Sancoeur had other things to do. If he wanted her help, he would ask for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLOT TWIST! Muahaha Hawkmoth can't touch her! Or can he?
> 
> The second reason Nooroo came up with but didn't say will be explained later on, after a SECOND plot twist I have planned for the next chapter (which should be posted by the weekend).


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo new chapter! First bit of business, my little hidden pun in the last chapter. It obviously wasn't a very good pun since no one got it, so I guess maybe it's more of an easter egg, but Alliterationisfun came the closest! It was in Hawkmoth's comment: "Her loveliness will mesmerize all of Paris until even Ladybug and Chat Noir are left seeing red!" A group of ladybugs is called a loveliness, lol. So even though Hawkmoth doesn't know she's Ladybug, he still associated her with ladybugs and seeing red (since Ladybug is red and red ladybugs with black spots are the most familiar ones).
> 
> Anyway, here's Tuesday at lunch!

Trying to keep Alya from going to the bakery for lunch to check on Marinette was harder than Adrien had anticipated. She insisted Marinette would have let her know she wouldn’t be in school. Any other day, Adrien would have agreed with her, but this time, he knew a secret that wasn’t his to tell. When Marinette was ready, she would tell them about what happened. Until then, Adrien had to come up with a way to keep Alya from forcing the issue and finding out on her own. Besides, if Alya and Nino went to visit Marinette for lunch, Chat Noir couldn’t show up without them asking questions, and Chat had made a promise.

It ended up being Nino’s suggestion that would either fix the situation or make everything worse.

“Alya, why don’t you call her parents before we make any decisions?” he said.

“Good idea!” Adrien encouraged. “Maybe they still want her to rest, or maybe she’s contagious or something.”

“Wait, if she was contagious, wouldn’t she have been contagious yesterday? So, we’d all be sick already, anyway,” Alya said, but pulled out her phone anyway. Adrien just shrugged helplessly while she found the number for the bakery.

It wasn’t until she pressed ‘Call’ that he remembered Chat had forgotten to tell Marinette’s parents he would stop by during lunch that day and began to panic.

“Hi, Mrs. Cheng! It’s Alya! I was just calling to see how Marinette is feeling,” Alya trailed off as Mrs. Cheng started talking. Adrien became worried when Alya’s eyes widened. “Oh, no! Do you think we could come visit her? Some company might cheer her up!”

Adrien held his breath while Mrs. Cheng answered, but let out a sigh of relief when Alya pouted. “Okay, Mrs. Cheng. Well, tell her we missed her at school and hope she feels better soon. I’ll call again later to see how she’s feeling.”

A minute later, Alya said goodbye and ended the call. Adrien and Nino both looked at her expectantly.

“Apparently Marinette was up for most of the night. She didn’t say what was wrong, though, just that she didn’t think it was a good idea for us to go over,” Alya said. “Guess we should make different plans for lunch then.”

“What about that new café down the street?” Nino suggested. Alya nodded and looked to Adrien for input.

“Actually, you guys, I think I’m going to go home for lunch today,” Adrien said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. Nino gaped at him.

“What? Why? Dude, you never willingly eat lunch at home. What’s up?” Nino asked, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Is this because Marinette won’t be joining us?”

_Yes, but not for the reason you think._

“What? Of course not,” Adrien said instead, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 

“Oh, really? It has nothing to do with the girl you think is so far out of your league that you wouldn’t stand a chance with her? The one you said you were, oh what were the words you used…in love with?” Alya teased.

“Yeah, dude, where did that come from? Like, not that I don’t get it because Marinette is great, but I thought she was _just a friend_?” Nino asked. Adrien groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

“I just, Nino, her heart is like an ocean that is inside of a bigger ocean,” Adrien said, pointedly avoiding eye-contact with his friends. “She’s always helping people! And she’s popular and she’s talented and she’s kind to everyone! She’s not _just_ anything.”

“You know, you’re not doing a very good job of convincing us that she’s not the reason you’re ditching us for lunch,” Alya said, a smug smile lighting up her features.

“My crush on Marinette is not why I’m not having lunch with you guys today, I promise,” Adrien said. 

Nino hummed in disbelief, throwing his arm across his girlfriend’s shoulders. “Then why are you going home for lunch today, Adrien?”

“I…didn’t sleep much last night either…I want to go take a nap.”

“You didn’t binge-watch another show on Netflix last night, did you?” Nino asked incredulously. “That’s two nights in a row!”

“Well, I technically didn’t finish the show I was watching on Sunday night, so…”

“Dude, you’re an addict.”

“An addict who needs to take better care of himself,” Alya said, poking Adrien’s side. “Sleep is important, you know!”

“Says the girl who chases Ladybug and Chat Noir around at all hours,” Nino teased his girlfriend.

“I don’t have to take my own advice, you know,” Alya snarked. “I can tell Sunshine over here that he needs to take better care of himself even if I don’t. It’s called doing as I say, but not as I do.”

“Regardless of my bad habits,” Adrien interrupted, “now you two can have a lunch date without any awkward third wheels.”

“That’s true,” Nino said thoughtfully. He stepped away from Alya and offered her his arm with a wink. “Shall we?”

“My hero,” she said with a laugh, putting her hand over her heart. Adrien didn’t catch the way the gesture caused her hand to brush against the fox tail necklace she had recently begun wearing, but Nino did and grinned at her. He reached up and tipped the brim of his hat with his right hand, drawing his girlfriend’s attention to his new turtle bracelet. Alya just laughed harder and looped her arm through his.

Adrien felt like he missed a very important part of that conversation.

“Well, dude, if you’re absolutely sure you don’t want to come with us, we’ll see you after lunch,” Nino said, holding out his free hand for a fist bump.

“See you after lunch,” Adrien said. He returned the fist bump as he attempted to stifle a yawn that came out of nowhere.

“Maybe you weren’t joking about needing that nap,” Alya said. They waved and walked off together in the direction of the new café Nino had suggested. 

Adrien waited until they had walked around the corner before he turned and walked the other way, ducking into an alleyway to transform. From there, he made his way to Marinette’s house. He did not, however, expect to run into Chloe on the roofs of Paris.

“Chloe? What are you doing transformed?” Chat Noir asked, landing next to her on the rooftop.

“What are you doing transformed?” she countered, crossing her arms over her chest indignantly. Chat rolled his eyes.

“I asked first.”

“Well, I asked second.”

“Chloe—”

“It’s Queen Bee while I’m transformed, Chat Noir,” she huffed, glaring at him.

“Maybe you should have thought of that bee-fore you told all of Paris your identity,” he retorted, smiling smugly at his pun. Queen Bee just rolled her eyes.

“You’re so lame,” she said. “If you must know, I just felt like transforming to get some air after class. Now, why are you transformed?”

“I have things to do,” he said vaguely. She huffed and turned to leave, but an idea crossed his mind and he grabbed her wrist to stop her. “Chloe, wait. I have a favor to ask you.”

“What is it?” she asked warily, pulling her arm away from him.

“I need you to take my patrol tonight,” he said. “I’ll take one of yours later, or you can just say I owe you one and you can call in a favor whenever you need. But I’d really appreciate it if you would take tonight’s patrol.”

“Why don’t you ask Ladybug? You two either swap or team up for patrols all the time,” she said. “Speaking of patrol, Ladybug wasn’t out last night, and I didn’t see you either. What happened?”

“I took her patrol. You just didn’t see me because I’m like the night,” he said, grinning.

“You really are lame,” she said. “But that doesn’t really answer my question. What happened?”

“She said she was sick, and asked me to patrol for her, which is why I don’t want to ask her to take my patrol tonight. If she’s still sick she needs to rest.”

“She didn’t seem sick at the akuma fight yesterday.”

“Then maybe it was food poisoning or something. She didn’t elaborate, so she might not have actually been sick and had a personal thing to deal with. If she calls tonight to take my patrol, I’ll let you know, but please say you’ll do it tonight?”

“Fine, I’ll take your patrol. But only if you actually call me Queen Bee when I’m transformed.”

“Will you settle for Queenie?” he asked.

“You can call me Queenie if you can get the others to call me Queen Bee,” she conceded. He nodded.

“I’ll do my best, Queenie,” he said. She rolled her eyes and took off in the direction of Le Grand Paris. Chat finally headed towards Marinette’s house.

He landed on her balcony and waited for a few seconds. Did she hear him? Would she open the trap door for him? Was she even awake? When he didn’t hear anything, he tapped on the glass lightly. If she was asleep, he didn’t want to wake her, and if she was awake, he didn’t want to startle her. He still didn’t get a response, so he eased open the trap door and jumped through it.

His jaw dropped when he saw her room. It had been perfectly tidy when he left that morning, but now it looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Pencils and pens and shreds of paper littered the floor. For a brief moment he worried there had been an akuma that decided to target Marinette, or worse, that Hawkmoth had prayed on Marinette’s pain and akumatized her. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw her sitting on the floor surrounded by even more shredded paper. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her forehead pressed against them. She was taking deep, shuddering breaths that broke his heart. He jumped down off the bed and crouched down next to her, but she didn’t even acknowledge he was there.

“Hey, Bugaboo,” Chat said softly, taking one of her hands in his. He frowned when she still didn’t move, even to grip his fingers the way she had the night before. “Rough morning?”

“Don’t call me that,” Marinette whispered, her voice hoarse. Had she been screaming?

“What?”

She finally looked up at him, and his breath caught in his throat. She had definitely been crying for the better part of the morning if the redness around her eyes was any indication, but that wasn’t what stopped him. What stopped him was seeing that her blue eyes were filled with a pain and rage that he had never seen in them before. If looks could kill, he would be dead. He glanced around the room nervously, checking for any little butterflies he would need to fend off for her, but there were none to be found.

“Don’t call me Bugaboo,” she rasped. She started rambling, every word more and more painful for her to say but it was as if she couldn’t stop, “or Ladybug or your Lady or anything. I’m not Ladybug, Chat. I can’t be. I ruined her for you, I ruined her, and I ruined the one thing you’d been asking for since we met, and she’s broken because I’m broken and I’m so, so, so sorry I ruined her—"

“Oh, Marinette,” Chat breathed out, interrupting her. Just like the night before, she burst into tears when he said her name. He shifted closer until he was sitting right behind her, his chest pressed against her back and her head tucked under his chin. He wrapped his arms around her loosely, wanting to comfort her, not trap her.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything, Marinette. None of this was your fault,” he soothed. A small part of him, which was probably Plagg talking to him from inside the suit, if that was even possible, wanted him to start purring, but he didn’t know how to do that on command. It had only happened a few times and only ever on accident. “Princess, there is no one in the world that could possibly be a better Ladybug than you are. I’m so happy it’s you.”

“But I ruined her for you,” Marinette sobbed quietly.

“No, Marinette, I promise you didn’t,” Chat said, pressing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “The only thing that’s changed for me is I found out that the two girls I love most are really the same person. That means that I love that girl twice as much as I ever thought was possible, and that that girl cares about me twice as much as I thought she did. And do you want to know something? I actually think having one amazing girl in my life is better than two fantastic ones.”

She gripped his hand tightly and he took that as an indication that he had said what she needed to hear. He adjusted his grip, but she surprised him by turning around to face him. She wrapped her arms around his stomach and held on for dear life, tucking her head back under his chin and hiding against him as she cried. He wrapped his arms around her again, and a purr rumbled up in his chest. The soft vibration seemed to calm her down, and she was asleep ten minutes later.

~*~*~*~

“I cannot believe that the day Adrien realizes he and Marinette were made for each other, she wasn’t at school for him to act on it!” Alya said as they sat down side-by-side in a booth at the café. “It just came out of nowhere! But she wasn’t even here! She’s going to die when she finds out.”

“I cannot believe that we’re on a date and you’re talking about our best friends getting together,” Nino teased.

“You know I’ll make it up to you when we’re out tomorrow night,” Alya retorted, touching her Miraculous with a wink. Nino rolled his eyes.

“Speaking of,” he said suddenly, changing the subject, “did you see anyone on patrol last night? Ladybug wasn’t out, even though it was her night for patrol, and I didn’t see Chat Noir anywhere.”

“I didn’t either. And I didn’t see any of the others out either…maybe since the akuma took so long to defeat, she decided not to do a patrol last night?” Alya suggested. “Or maybe…I think the email I got this morning was something for the Ladyblog. Maybe whoever sent it in saw Ladybug and took a picture for the blog. Let me find it.”

She pulled out her phone and looked for the email she had seen while Nino sipped on his coffee. Wayzz was hiding in his bag, likely with hanging out with Trixx. He noticed Alya’s expression shift from determination to confusion to horror and put his drink down.

“What is it?” he asked, leaning over to see. Alya tilted her phone towards him silently.

“Well, Chat Noir was out last night,” she said. “He rescued a girl who had apparently been abducted on her walk home. I wonder why he didn’t call anyone else for help?”

“Well, it looks like he called the cops,” Nino said, skimming the article to find the photographs that were attached. “Look at these photos. He wasn’t an akuma.”

They scrolled through the photos together, which had clearly been taken with a cell phone camera, trying to piece together what had really happened. If Chat Noir and the police were involved, it wasn’t likely that whatever this reporter had sent to her was entirely accurate. Most of the photos were of the police surrounding a building, but one of them caught Nino’s attention.

“Wait, zoom in right there,” he said, pointing to Chat Noir and the seemingly unconscious man he was dragging out of the building. “Is that Michel?”

“I think that was the name used in the article, but I’m not sure if it’s his real name or not…Nino, do you know him?” Alya asked.

“Our whole class knows him. His younger sister Cheryl was in our class for years. She and Marinette were practically inseparable,” Nino said, shock apparent in his voice as he knit his brows together. “I thought he left Paris.”

“She was close to Marinette? Why haven’t I heard of her before? Or met her, even? Was she at Marinette’s birthday party?”

“Alya, she died a couple of years ago. The cops said she fell off her balcony…Marinette took it really hard. She blamed herself for a really long time.”

“I’m a horrible best friend,” Alya said, setting her phone down on the table. “How come I didn’t know about that?”

“Alya, she doesn’t really talk about it. I just know because I was the person closest to her when it happened, so I was the one she reached out to,” Nino said. “But she never told me why she blamed herself. I just know she did.”

“And then she becomes friends with me, and I’m constantly getting in trouble during akuma attacks because I’m trying to be a journalist…no wonder she tries to keep me away from the fights as much as possible and gives out when I don’t.”

“Okay, but you have some Trixx up your sleeve so that isn’t going to happen to you,” Nino said, nudging her shoulder. She snorted and rolled her eyes at his pun.

“Oh, you’re as bad as Chat Noir,” she jokingly complained. She picked up her phone and continued to scroll through the photos and didn’t stop until she saw one of Chat Noir carrying a girl out of the building. She was wrapped in a blanket, so they couldn’t see her clothes, and from the camera angle they could barely see half of her face. The only things they could actually see about her appearance was that she had black hair and light skin, and her bare legs were specked with blood. Alya zoomed in on the photograph and gasped. “Nino! Nino, look. There’s a photo of the girl.”

“Can you tell who it is?” he asked, leaning over her shoulder to see better. “Do we know her?”

“I can’t tell…Nino, you don’t think it was Ladybug…do you?” Alya asked, lowering her voice so no one would overhear their conversation. “It would explain why Chat Noir was there, and why there wasn’t anyone patrolling last night…”

“No, no I’m sure it wasn’t,” Nino reassured her. “Or at least, I hope not…did the article say what happened to her?”

“It’s all speculation. The only thing they knew when they wrote the article was the victim had gotten caught up in the akuma attack and was walking home when she was grabbed, and the name of the guy Chat dragged out of the building. The police wouldn’t answer any other questions. But none of their theories were good, Nino,” Alya said. “Apparently, Lt. Raincomprix personally drove to the hospital with her, while Chat rode in the ambulance. Is that normal?”

“I don’t know, babe.”

“I hope to god we don’t know her,” Alya said, resting her head on Nino’s shoulder.

“I hope so too.”

~*~*~*~

Once Chat was sure Marinette was asleep, he carefully picked her up and brought her back to bed. He tucked her in and left the Chat Noir doll right next to her, then decided to help her by tidying up her room. He started sorting through the papers scattered on the ground. His heart broke when he realized they were all of her photos from her wall, and that she had ripped most of them up. He sorted through them and left any that hadn’t been ruined on her desk for her to put back on her wall. 

He found one of him, Alya, Nino, and Marinette together that was salvageable and smiled. He remembered when that photo had been taken. His father had let him out of the house to go see Incredibles 2, and afterwards Marinette had somehow managed to convince Gorilla to let Adrien go for ice cream with them. Gorilla had agreed on the condition that he drove them to the ice cream parlor. When they got their ice cream orders and were sitting outside talking about the movie, Marinette had given Gorilla her phone to take a picture of them. It had become his desktop wallpaper and had stayed like that ever since.

He scanned the desk and found a stack of post-it notes and grabbed a pen off the floor.

**Your friends probably missed you in class today. If you’re up to it later, you should send them a message. (=^.^=)**

He pinned the picture and the sticky note to the board above her bed—that he was surprised to see had been left mostly untouched—and sat down on her chaise. Tikki flew over from her hiding place a few seconds later.

“You should bring her to see Master Fu,” Tikki suggested. “I think he can help her. You’ve met him, right?”

“The Guardian of the Miraculouses, right? Yeah, he replaced my Chinese teacher after Syren and explained everything,” Chat said. “I don’t know where he lives to bring her there, though.”

“What happened to your first Chinese teacher?” Tikki asked.

“I have no clue,” Chat admitted. Tikki blinked twice.

“Well, okay. I know his address. I can give it to you and you can bring her there tomorrow afternoon if she’s up for it,” Tikki said. Chat nodded and grabbed another sticky note to write down the address. He tucked it into his pocket next to his Marinette Lucky Charm.

“Tikki, how do you know he can help her?” Chat asked. A haunted look crossed Tikki’s blue eyes.

“This isn’t the first time something like this has happened,” Tikki said. “It’s never happened to Marinette before, but it has happened to other Miraculous holders. Throughout history, almost every holder of a Miraculous has gone through some kind of trauma in their personal lives. This trauma is usually indirectly related to their hero persona. It’s usually something to do with their families getting into trouble after the villain of the era found out their identity, or something goes wrong during a fight and the damage can’t be reversed, but there are also cases where, like with Marinette, they were just stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time after a battle. They all react to it differently, and it makes it hard for them to continue being a hero.”

“Like how Marinette didn’t think she could still be Ladybug this morning,” Chat said.

“Exactly. And Chat Noir, if she reacts the way Ladybugs have in the past, it’s going to get harder for her before it gets easier,” Tikki warned. “She needs you, but she needs other people she can talk to as well, people who know what she’s going through.”

“Like a therapist?” Chat asked.

“Yes and no. A therapist would be ideal if she wasn’t a superhero. In her case, a big part of her healing is going to be her trying to figure out how to still be Ladybug after what happened to her. That’s why I said Master Fu would be the best. Usually, Miraculous holders that go through a trauma go to the Great Guardian of the Miraculouses, who already knows their identity and knows them and can help them work through it and grow as a hero. Master Fu will be able to explain it better,” Tikki promised. “But she needs her friends too. You can’t force her to talk to anyone about it, and I’m not telling you to tell them what happened, but she needs them by her side.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Chat promised. He heard Marinette’s dad walk into the living room downstairs and decided to walk down to greet him.

“Hi, Mr. Dupain,” he said with a wave as he walked down the stairs from Marinette’s room.

“Ah, Chat Noir. I had a feeling you’d be here. How are you? How’s Marinette?” Mr. Dupain asked as he took out a fresh croissant from the bag he had brought up.

“She’s asleep again, and I’ve been better,” Chat admitted. Mr. Dupain looked at him curiously as he sliced the croissant in half, so he elaborated, “I just hate seeing her so upset. I’m so used to seeing her so, full of life, I guess. Determined. Happy. But now…”

“It’s hard,” Mr. Dupain finished for him, a heartbroken smile on his face as Chat nodded.

“Exactly,” Chat said. They were quiet for a few minutes. Mr. Dupain focused on the sandwich he was making with the croissant, and Chat just stared off into space before he remembered his conversation with Tikki. “Actually, sir, I think I know someone who could help her. Like a therapist. He deals with, special cases. I could bring her tomorrow afternoon, if she was up for it?”

“You don’t have to ask my permission, Chat Noir. If she’s up to it and you think this therapist can help her, then you do what you think is right and just let Sabine and I know what we can do. We’ll talk to her about it later, or you can talk to her about it yourself if you stop by tonight. You’re welcome for dinner if your family won’t miss you,” Mr. Dupain said.

“I’ll definitely stop by tonight. I still need to get her homework for her like I promised I would,” Chat said. Mr. Dupain smiled and turned to look for something in his cupboards.

“You probably have to get back to class soon, don’t you?” he asked.

“I have about twenty-five minutes before class starts, sir,” Chat replied.

“In that case, I’ll make this to-go for you,” Mr. Dupain said, turning back around with a lunchbox in his hands.

“Wait, what?” Chat asked.

“That way you can eat on your way back to school. You have to eat lunch, Chat Noir,” Mr. Dupain said. “Do you want anything else? Any cookies or pastries or anything like that?”

“Mr. Dupain, you really didn’t have to make me lunch,” Chat started to protest, but the man just waved him off as he wrapped the sandwich and put it in the lunchbox alongside some freshly baked cookies.

“Nonsense! You can’t spend this much time in a baker’s house and think we won’t feed you! Besides, you came to look after my daughter on your lunch break instead of going to eat with your friends, and you were here all night last night, so it’s the least we can do,” Mr. Dupain said with a bright smile. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers and reheated some of the leftover hot chocolate from the night before, which he poured into a plain black to-go cup. Chat gave up on trying to argue. He clearly wasn't going to win this fight. “Now, would you like anything else?”

“You, um, you wouldn’t happen to have any cheese, would you? Maybe camembert?” Chat asked, before quickly adding, “It’s okay if you don’t! A lot of people don’t like it, and you already made me lunch, so I don’t want to impose.”

“Camembert, huh? As a matter of fact, I do,” Mr. Dupain said. He reached into the fridge and pulled out a huge wheel of good camembert. He put a few wedges in a plastic bag, then put the plastic bag in the lunchbox that was very steadily filling up with food. “Marinette asked us to start keeping it in the fridge. She said a friend of hers seemed to really like it. I assume you were that friend?”

“Yeah, that was probably me,” Chat laughed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. 

He had detransformed a few times at Marinette’s house. She had always been very respectful of his secret identity, but the first time it happened neither of them had Plagg’s preferred cheese, so he’d had to settle for a cheese Danish. Plagg hadn’t complained. In fact, the only thing he had said about it was that Marinette fed him better than Adrien did. After that day, every time Chat had to detransform at Marinette’s house, she always seemed to have camembert. He had never noticed it before and had chalked it up to pure coincidence, meanwhile she had played it off as if it was nothing, so he never imagined she had gone out of her way to have it on hand for him. His heart swelled at the gesture, but he had to berate himself for not paying more attention to her. What else hadn’t he noticed?

“Well, we always have it on hand now. If you ever want some, or any food, really, you are more than welcome to raid our fridge for it,” Mr. Dupain said, smiling brightly. “And while I would love to keep you here all afternoon, you only have twenty minutes to get back and you still have to eat.”

“Thank you,” Chat said. He coughed quietly to clear the lump he felt forming in his throat. It was clear where Marinette’s kindness came from, and the encounters he had with her family meant more than he wanted to admit.

“You’re welcome. Now, shoo, don’t be late!” Mr. Dupain said as he ushered Chat out the back door. “And remember, if your family won’t miss you for dinner and you want to come over, you are always welcome here, Chat Noir. Don’t worry about imposing, either. We’ll always have enough food for one more.”

Chat nodded with a smile, trying to choke down the emotions that had swelled inside of him out of nowhere. He waved and vaulted away, arriving at the school just a few minutes later with plenty of time to spare. He ducked into an alley to detransform and made his way to the park across the street to eat his lunch. He was a little rushed, since he wanted to be back in class before the warning bell rang, but he managed. He fed Plagg and even drank most of the hot chocolate before he decided to throw away his trash and walk back to the classroom.

~*~*~*~

“Do you think I should post it, Nino?” Alya asked as they walked back to school.

“Do you feel like you should?” Nino asked in return. Alya sighed.

“I don’t know. Part of me says yes. Yes, I should post it as a thank you to Chat Noir for making Paris safer even if there isn’t an akuma. Whoever she was, he probably saved her life, so he should get some recognition for that. Also, I think Michel should be exposed for the scumbag he is,” Alya reasoned. “The other part of me says no. If the police aren’t releasing the girl’s name, there’s obviously a reason for it. Even if I don’t know it, don’t you think I should try to respect that?”

“You don’t have to release anything that might expose her identity, you know,” Nino reasoned.

“Nino’s right, Alya,” Trixx said, peeking out from his hiding spot in Nino’s bag. “You can write a post on your Ladyblog about how Chat Noir helped the police make an arrest late last night and leave it at that. Or if you want it to be more detailed, you can say that while the police have not released any information, your sources speculate that he abducted a girl. Then just say the victim wishes to remain anonymous so you won’t be uploading any pictures with her in them.”

“Trixx has a point,” Nino said. “We don’t even know who the girl is, and as long as you don’t post that one photo of her, no one should be able to identify her.”

“What if she didn’t want the press to know anything?” Wayzz pointed out from where he had been hiding with Trixx throughout lunch. “Maybe she would be hurt to see this information posted online.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Alya sighed. “People on the internet are so cruel, it makes the world seem full of Chloe Bourgeoises, when most people really aren’t like that. I wouldn’t want whoever she is to see hurtful comments just because someone shared the little information we have.”

“You are a reporter though,” Nino reminded her. “If you’re still torn, I would say do nothing until you decide. If you feel like you should share something about what happened later, you can always post the information then. It’ll be harder to take it down if you end up regretting your decision.”

“So, think slow and steady?” Alya asked, a smirk tugging at her lips. “You’re such a turtle.”

“Yeah, but I’m your turtle,” he said, kissing her cheek. Alya rolled her eyes affectionately.

“Yes, yes you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't quite get everything in here that I wanted to fit in this chapter, but it would have been 20 pages minimum if I had so there will be a new chapter coming soon. Plus (spoiler alert) I have a huge argument planned for the next chapter, so it'll be another long one.
> 
> What do you guys think? Should Alya post any information about what happened? Let me know!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tuesday afternoon! I swear my original outline did not plan for the first full day in this story to take place over three full chapters (especially since Marinette isn't actually in this chapter, and chapter 6 will still have some Tuesday stuff to cover what I have planned for Tuesday night, but that should only be half of the chapter...I hope), but I kept adding things and adjusting details and filling it out and I really like the way it's going. It's just much longer than I thought it would be.
> 
> Anyway, this chapter is where we begin to find out why Hawkmoth couldn't akumatize Marinette. It'll be explained in full in a couple of chapters (I warned y'all that this would be a pretty long fic) when Marinette goes to talk to Master Fu herself, but this chapter set itself up so that I could introduce that little plot twist. Alya also low-key breaks the fourth wall again, so that's fun.
> 
> Also, I just want to say that you guys are the best???? So many comments! I love hearing your thoughts on each chapter! It makes my day!

Adrien had his head on the desk when Alya and Nino walked into the classroom. He didn’t stir as they sat down, so Nino poked his shoulder to see if he was awake. Adrien’s head popped up immediately. He was a little dazed and had to blink a few times before he could actually see his best friends.

“Oh. Hey,” Adrien said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“How was your nap?” Nino asked. He had to fight back a smirk at Adrien’s confused look.

“Obviously not long enough,” Alya said.

“What?” Adrien asked. His brain finally caught up with what was happening. He must have fallen asleep as soon as he got to the classroom, but he couldn’t have been out for more than five minutes. “Oh. No, it was good. I’m just still tired.”

“We can tell,” Nino said. “Promise me you’ll sleep tonight.”

“I’ll do my best,” Adrien said. Nino frowned and looked like he was about to correct him, but Adrien decided to change the subject. The last thing he needed was them finding out he hadn’t actually napped, or why. “Did you, um, did you guys hear from Marinette during lunch?”

“No,” Alya said, her brows knitting together. “I can’t figure out what could be wrong with her. She seemed absolutely fine yesterday.”

“Food poisoning, maybe?” Adrien suggested.

“Not a chance,” Alya said definitively. “Her parents are bakers and her great uncle is one of the best chefs in the world. Cooking runs in their blood. There has never been a dish the Dupain-Chengs have ever served anyone that made them sick. Not even with accidental allergies.”

“Alya, you know I will take your side in just about anything and that I love Marinette’s family as much as you do, but don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a little bit?” Nino asked. 

“Nope! I swear, that family has some kind of culinary magic that I thought only existed in fanfiction that tries way too hard to make the characters seem extraordinary,” Alya said.

“Then I don’t know what to tell you, Alya,” Adrien said. “Maybe she was sick yesterday morning and just did a really good job of hiding it? Or her symptoms didn’t kick in until after school was cancelled because of the akuma attack? I don’t know.”

“Actually, Adrien, now that you mention the akuma attack,” Alya said, her eyes flicking to Nino, “we did hear about something that happened last night, after the attack.”

“What did you hear?” Adrien asked slowly. He was wide awake now, his eyes flicking between his best friends and the door. Their classmates should be coming back from lunch any minute, and if Alya found out the wrong thing…

“Someone sent in an article for the Ladyblog. Apparently, there was a girl who got caught up in the akuma attack last night and was abducted on her walk home. Thankfully, Chat Noir was there to save her, and an ambulance brought her to the hospital,” Alya said. She intentionally skirted around a few of the details. She suspected it was Ladybug, but she didn’t want that rumor to grow by telling non-Miraculous holders her theory. If she was wrong, that would be a horrible rumor to have spread, but if she was right, she didn’t think Ladybug would appreciate the risk to her identity a rumor like that posed.

“Do you know who she was?” Adrien asked. A pit of ice was forming in his stomach. Marinette had one request regarding the night before and that was to remain anonymous. If Alya knew…

“No, no we don’t know her name, or anything about her, really,” Alya said quickly. “The person who wrote the article couldn’t get her name, and the only picture of her was taken from a bad angle so it’s too hard to tell who she is. All I could tell was she had dark hair. Besides, there aren’t any other official news reports about it, so it’s shaky information at best and normally I would ignore something that I can’t verify, except Nino said he knows the guy who abducted her.”

“I recognized him from some of the photographs. His name is Michel Boivin,” Nino said, just as Kim, Alix, and Max walked into the room, followed by Nathaniel, then Chloe and Sabrina.

“Hey, why are you talking about Michel?” Kim asked as he walked past. “I thought he left Paris.”

“Someone sent me photographs of Chat Noir arresting him last night, so apparently he’s still around,” Alya said. “They were paired with a vague article about it.”

“I think my dad was there,” Sabrina said as she sat down. “He got a call around 8:30 last night. He only told me that there was an emergency before he ran out of the house. He came back really late and seemed really shaken up about something.”

“Lt. Raincomprix was in a few of the photos,” Alya confirmed.

“What did Michel do?” Nathaniel asked.

“The police wouldn’t say. All the article said was he abducted a girl, and a few theories about what he might have done to her…” Alya trailed off. Half of the class exchanged wary looks.

“Was there a photograph of the girl? Do we know anything about her?” Juleka asked, making Adrien jump. He hadn’t noticed her walk in with Rose, Ivan, and Mylene.

“All we know is she had dark hair,” Alya said, “and that in the picture, it looked like there was blood on her leg. There was no name attached, and only one blurry picture.”

“Do you think we know her?” Rose asked. She looked absolutely distraught.

“Well, statistically speaking,” Max said as he adjusted his glasses, “most people are assaulted by someone they know. Worldwide, 7 out of 10 rapes are committed by someone the victim knew. When it comes to children and teenagers, that statistic jumps up to more than 9 out 10, closer to 93%. Considering all of us knew Michel because we were his sister’s classmates, I’d say there is a very high chance that if the victim was a teenager, we knew her.”

Alya’s face drained of color, and she whipped around to lock eyes with Nino. He grabbed her hand in an attempt to be reassuring, but he knew what must have gone through her mind.

_The girl had dark hair. It was most likely that Michel had assaulted someone he knew. Marinette was missing from school with no warning or real explanation, and Michel’s sister had been her best friend…_

“For his sake, he had better hope we don’t know her,” Kim said darkly, interrupting that train of thought.

“Why do you say that?” Adrien asked, willing his voice to be stronger than he felt.

“He’s dead if we do,” Alix said, her eyes flashing. All of the guys and most of the girls in the class nodded their agreement. Even Rose seemed to agree.

“Oh, please,” Chloe said with a flip of her ponytail. Adrien visibly bristled at her tone. “This whole conversation is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! It doesn’t matter who she is! If she was anyone important, Ladybug or I would have been the one to rescue her, not lame Chat Noir. Since he was the one to save her, she must have been some boring nobody like Marinette.”

“Chloe, that is enough!” Adrien roared, slamming his hand on the desk sharply. Alya looked ready to claw Chloe’s eyes out, but Adrien’s outburst had shocked her as much as it shocked everyone else. He never rose his voice, at least not in class, and not towards Chloe. “Whoever she was might not be important to you, but she is important to someone! She has parents that love her and friends that worry about her and she might even have people who rely on her! She definitely has more people who think she’s important than you could imagine, and she may have more people that care about and rely on her than you do, Chloe.”

“Adrikins! I am one of Paris’s superheroes!” Chloe countered, standing up to yell at him. “I’m Queen Bee! All of Paris relies on me! There’s no way someone who couldn’t even walk home without getting hurt could have more people that rely on her than I do!”

“You would be surprised, Chloe,” Adrien growled. He was radiating pure fury, and his classmates began to nervously check for akumas. Adrien and Marinette were the only two people in their class to have never been akumatized…they definitely didn’t want to find out what would happen if he was akumatized over this. He may become the first akuma to successfully steal Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses…or at least the first to intentionally commit a murder. “How can you call yourself a superhero if you don’t believe that everyone deserves to be saved? If you want people to believe that you can be a real hero, you should try acting like one sometime.”

Chloe and Adrien stared each other down. Despite the fact that Adrien was still seated while Chloe had stood up, Adrien was the scarier of the two. The tension between them was practically electrified, and no one dared to even breathe in case they made the situation worse. The only sound to be heard was Adrien’s ragged breathing as he attempted to calm down. Chloe ended up being the first to look away, and she sunk back down into her chair.

“Well, considering it was Michel, she was probably some nobody who asked him for it and then got embarrassed when she got caught,” Chloe finally retorted, turning to her notebook.

“That’s it,” Adrien muttered as he stood up. Nino held back Alya, who was about to stand up as well, but he didn’t know if it was to join their friend or stop him. 

Kim was the one who saw murder flash in Adrien’s green eyes. He was out of his seat and body slamming into Adrien so quickly no one was sure if had stood up or leapt over his desk. They tumbled to the ground, somehow managing to twist so they would land without getting seriously hurt. Nino jumped up to help Kim get Adrien back to his seat, and Rose ran down to try and convince Adrien to calm down. The rest of their class was halfway under their desks already, fully prepared for what seemed like an inevitable akuma attack.

Nino took one look at Alya and realized she looked like she was about to pass out, so he grabbed her hand and dragged her out into the hallway. They bumped into Madame Bustier as she was about to walk into the classroom.

“Nino, Alya, is everything alright? Where are you going?” Madame Bustier asked.

“I’m taking Alya to the nurse,” Nino explained. Madame Bustier frowned when he didn’t elaborate but took one look at Alya’s too-pale face and nodded. Nino let out a sigh of relief and dragged Alya down the stairs and into an empty corridor.

“Alya, breathe,” Nino said. “Everything is okay.”

“But what if it’s not?” Alya said, her voice pitched higher than normal as she began to panic. “Nino, you heard Max. Michel probably attacked someone he knows. He probably attacked someone we know, and Marinette isn’t here today, and Marinette was his little sister’s best friend, so she would have been the closest person to him from our class…what if the girl Chat saved last night was Marinette?”

“Alya, the one thing the police told whoever wrote that article was that the girl had gotten caught up in the akuma attack and was walking home when Michel grabbed her. That’s all the information we know for sure, but that means it can’t be Marinette,” Nino said. 

“How do you know it can’t be Marinette?” Alya asked. He put his hands on her shoulder and forced her to look at him.

“Alya, did you see Marinette anywhere near the akuma battle yesterday? Because I didn’t,” Nino said. Alya thought for a minute and shook her head. “See? She wasn’t there, so she wouldn’t have had to walk home from it. But I need you to calm down. Adrien is probably about to be akumatized, or even Chloe again, and Ladybug and Chat and I need you to help us fight him when that happens. We can’t do that if you make yourself sick with worry, or if you get akumatized! I can’t fight my girlfriend.”

Alya nodded slowly and took a few deep breaths, willing herself to calm down. Nino was right. There was no way this was anything more than just a coincidence, and she needed to be ready to fight if Hawkmoth managed to akumatize their friend. It took a few minutes, but she could finally breathe normally again.

“Better?” Nino asked. Alya nodded and took one more deep breath.

“Better,” she said, smiling.

“Good. Now, let’s go see what Hawkmoth is going to unleash on us,” Nino said. 

They both transformed and snuck up to the roof, unnerved by how silent the school was. Usually whenever there was an akuma attack, there would be screams and people rushing around to evacuate, but the whole school seemed empty. They finally found a ledge they could see into the classroom from without being seen, and what they saw almost made Rena Rouge fall off the roof. Or more accurately, sh would have if Carapace hadn’t caught her.

“There’s no akuma,” Rena said. “Why isn’t there an akuma? Adrien was angrier than any akuma victim I’ve ever seen.”

“Maybe Hawkmoth is taking a vacation?” Carapace asked.

“Not likely…” Rena trailed off.

“Then I have no clue. Rose must have managed to calm him down before Hawkmoth noticed him.”

“I didn’t know that was possible. But if there’s no akuma, we should really get back to class.”

“Lead the way,” Carapace said, gesturing back the way they came. They detransformed and made their way back to the classroom, and the rest of the day went on completely uninterrupted. 

No one in Madame Bustier’s class had ever been more grateful that there wasn’t an akuma attack.

~*~*~*~

“Nathalie, I need you to do something for me,” Gabriel Agreste said as soon as his assistant walked into his office.

“What do you need?” Nathalie asked.

“I need you to buy me some new tables,” Gabriel said.

“New tables? For where?” Nathalie pressed, raising an eyebrow at her boss’s odd remark.

“You know where they’re for,” Gabriel grumbled.

“Wh—oh,” Nathalie said, hiding a smirk as she recalled his temper tantrum that morning. “Can I ask why you want me to buy tables for that room?”

“It needs tables.”

“For what reason?”

“Nathalie, as my assistant, you should know that your job description does not involve questioning my decisions. That room needs tables.”

“I’m just trying to determine how many tables it needs, and what material they should be made of. Different materials are better suited for different uses. For example, if you want a heavy, sturdy table that will last for years, I would purchase a solid oak or mahogany table. If you wanted one that was easy to clean, I would get a steel one, or perhaps one with a glass top. If you wanted one that could, oh, let’s see…survive being thrown across the room multiple times per week, I would get one that was light but sturdy, and perhaps made of aluminum or plastic.”

“Nathalie, I would advise you not to mock me,” Gabriel warned. “But if you get me a plastic desk you may as well hand in your two weeks’ notice with it.”

“No, I really think a plastic desk would suit your needs the best,” Nathalie said, pulling up options on her tablet to hide her growing smirk. “I think Adrien’s old tables are still in storage if you need a table before a new one can be delivered. Do you remember his old play tables, sir? There was the picnic table that was kept outside on the patio, with the blue legs and red benches and the cream colored table-top, which should be wonderful to have next to the huge window in that room. You can hold picnics there with your butterflies while your akumas carry out your plans. Or, I believe we have the indoor play table as well, the multicolored one you picked out that Adrien loved so much. With the red table top that was yellow underneath, and the table legs were all yellow and blue and green and red with mis-matched feet? With the four small stools that were all basically miniature versions of the table, but the tops were different colors?”

“Nathalie.”

“Yes?”

Gabriel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. He heard but chose to ignore the laugh Nathalie had huffed out and tried to disguise by clearing her throat.

“Just get an aluminum table,” Gabriel said.

“As you wish,” Nathalie said, trying to morph her teasing smile into a more neutral expression. Gabriel rolled his eyes and waved her out of the room. Once she was gone, he huffed at her teasing and went back to his paperwork.

~*~*~*~

When Adrien finally got home from school, he asked Nathalie if he could have his dinner as soon as his piano lesson ended. He wasn’t sure what it was that finally convinced her, if it was the exhaustion on his face or the fact that he would be eating alone again or something else entirely, but she had taken pity on him and agreed. 

He ate quickly and told Nathalie he was going to finish his homework early and go to bed. He wished it wasn’t a lie, because he hadn’t slept since Sunday night. He had struggled through the afternoon and had to fight back yawns during his piano lesson, and he really just wanted to sleep. But he had made a promise and he was going to keep it. He grabbed his backpack and called for his transformation, then leapt out into the city, making a bee-line for the address Tikki had given him. He wanted to let Master Fu know Tikki had recommended he bring Marinette to see him and he didn’t have any other way of getting in touch with him.

Adrien detransformed in the alley next to Master Fu’s apartment and made his way up the stairs. He reached out to knock on the door, but Plagg decided to just zip out of his pocket and phase through the door.

“Plagg!” Adrien hissed, glancing up and down the hall to make sure no one was there.

“Come in, Adrien,” Master Fu called through the door. Adrien opened the door and walked in. Master Fu was sitting at his table and motioned for Adrien to join him. “Come sit down. I just made some tea.”

Adrien walked over, shooting his kwami an unamused look as he sat down. Master Fu poured him a cup of tea.

“So, Adrien, did Plagg tell you how to get here?” Master Fu asked, sipping from his own cup. “Or did Tikki?”

“Wait, Master Fu, do you know what happened?” Adrien asked, his eyes wide.

“Only that something did happen,” Master Fu said. “Something shifted last night, and if I’m right, then something happened to Ladybug.”

“How do you know?” Adrien asked.

“How was your day, Adrien?” Master Fu changed the subject. “Did anything unusual happen?”

“It was, normal,” Adrien said, tilting his head in confusion. “Except that I went to visit Marinette during lunch, and before class started…”

Master Fu waited patiently while Adrien thought back on his day, trying to pinpoint anything that might have been unusual.

“I argued with Chloe,” Adrien eventually finished. “No, not argued. I fought with Chloe. She was saying horrible things about Marinette, and Kim had to physically restrain me. I’ve never been so angry before…”

“Did anything happen after that fight?” Master Fu asked.

“Nino and Alya left the room for a few minutes, and Madame Bustier came in and started class. After that it was just a normal day,” Adrien said. “Nothing else happened.”

“Is there something that maybe should have happened, but didn’t?” Master Fu asked.

“Should have happened? What do you…” Adrien trailed off, his eyes wide as he realized what Master Fu was getting at. “I wasn’t akumatized. I should have been akumatized, or if not me then Chloe, or maybe Kim, or Alya looked upset enough to have been akumatized as well. And Marinette was so upset today…”

“Precisely. Hawkmoth could just be taking a day off, but he’s been so desperate to get your Miraculous that he will use any negative emotions he can find, including toddlers, robots, babies, and kids with nightmares. Why would he pass up the opportunity to akumatize someone like you, or Chloe, or Kim, or Marinette?” Master Fu asked.

“Is it the Miraculous? Does the ring protect me from his influence?” Adrien asked.

“No, the ring cannot protect you,” Master Fu said. “Remember when Queen Bee was akumatized into Queen Wasp? Or how in the battle on Heroes Day, Rena Rouge and Carapace were akumatized into Rena Rage and Carapire? They had their own Miraculouses, and yet they still came under Hawkmoth’s control. So, why not today?”

Adrien looked blankly between Master Fu and Plagg. When neither of them offered up the answer, he just shrugged helplessly.

“I take it you know Ladybug’s identity?” Master Fu asked. Adrien nodded, so Master Fu continued, “When you went to visit Marinette at lunch, did Tikki say anything?”

“She said that you could help Marinette, and that this kind of thing has happened to Miraculous holders before,” Adrien said. “She didn’t say what that meant though.”

“Adrien, you know that using a Miraculous can have side effects. You’ve probably started purring by now. The more you use the Miraculous, the more you’ll grow as a hero, and if you use it long enough you may learn to use some of the powers granted by the Miraculous when not transformed. Just like with the suit design, the Miraculous can change to fit the holder’s wants or needs,” Master Fu explained. “When a Miraculous holder goes through a traumatic experience, it acts as a catalyst to grant the holder more power. How that power manifests depends on what the holder needs at the time, and what their personality is like.”

“What does that mean?” Adrien asked.

“It means that as long Marinette keeps the Miraculous, she’ll always be Ladybug,” Plagg said. Master Fu frowned.

“Sort of,” Master Fu said, “but that doesn’t make anything easier to understand. It means that she’ll be able to use a variation of her Ladybug powers when she isn’t transformed. I won’t know exactly how it applies to Marinette until she’s ready to come see me, but if no one was akumatized today even though there were plenty of possible victims, I’d say she’s blocking the akumas somehow.”

“She can do that?” Adrien and Plagg asked at the same time.

“It’s possible,” Master Fu said. “I’ve never seen a Ladybug’s power evolve quite like that, but it would mean her ability to purify the akumas is the one that is changing.”

“Master Fu, I don’t think any Ladybug has had that power,” Plagg said, “even before you became Guardian.”

“Then this is new,” Master Fu said.

“But it would give her time to heal,” Adrien said. “She wouldn’t have to fight until she was ready. But Master Fu, Hawkmoth isn’t working alone anymore. Someone had the Peacock Miraculous on Heroes Day and used it to help him escape. What if they’re able to get past whatever Marinette is doing to block the akumas?”

“One thing at a time, Adrien,” Master Fu said. “We’ll worry about that when it becomes a problem. Now, I take it you’ll be going to visit Marinette after you leave here?”

“How did you guess?” Adrien asked. 

“You’re her Chat Noir,” Master Fu said with a smile. “Ladybug and Chat Noir are two halves of a whole. They orbit each other, regardless of who the holders are, or even if they’re on the same side. When something happens to one, the other closes in to help. It’s just the way it goes, especially after an identity reveal.”

“Actually, Master Fu, she doesn’t know that I’m Chat Noir yet,” Adrien corrected him. “There hasn’t been a moment where it seemed like the right time to tell her.”

“Really? In that case, I think it’s better that you don’t reveal your identity to her at all,” Master Fu said. “She needs both Adrien and Chat Noir to help her heal. Revealing that you are Chat Noir could make things worse. When she’s ready, she’ll figure it out for herself.”

“Isn’t it dangerous if I know her identity but she doesn’t know mine?” Adrien asked.

“You know Chloe’s identity, but Chloe doesn’t know yours,” Master Fu reminded him. “Besides, Ladybug is clever. Spend as much time with her as you can as both Adrien and Chat Noir and she’ll figure it out on her own soon enough. Just be patient with her and don’t force it.”

“If you think that’s best,” Adrien said. He wasn’t sure he agreed, but after seeing the shredded photographs on the floor of Marinette’s room that afternoon, he realized what Master Fu was saying made sense.

“Good. You should probably get going,” Master Fu said as he stood up. Adrien followed suit while Plagg flew back into his pocket and they walked over to the door. “And Adrien, make sure you’re taking care of yourself. You need to sleep tonight. You’re exhausted. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“I will, I promise,” Adrien said.

He left Master Fu’s apartment and ducked back into the alley to retransform. Before he did, though, he thought back to something Master Fu had said.

“Plagg, did you know Master Fu lived here?” Adrien asked.

“Of course,” Plagg said, zipping out of Adrien’s pocket to float next to him.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Adrien asked, raising one eyebrow.

“It wasn’t important before! Besides, Tikki told you when you needed to know about it,” Plagg defended. 

Adrien rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone. He scrolled through until he found the contact he was looking for and tapped on ‘Message.’

**To: Marinette**

**Hey, Marinette! We missed you in class today. I hope you’re feeling better. Let me know if you need anything!**

He pressed send, hoping she would appreciate the gesture. They didn’t text each other much, but maybe if he started the conversation, she would feel more comfortable responding.

He called for his transformation and took off towards her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all don't think the bit about the way the Miraculous changes is too much. I have plans for this though, and her new trick is central to those plans. 
> 
> Also, here are the links to the [first](https://goo.gl/images/CACvMw) and [second](https://guide.alibaba.com/shop/kids-multicolor-table-and-4-stools-set-durable-plastic-childrens-play-brand-ne_9545750.html) tables Nathalie is referring to.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE LAST CHAPTER OF TUESDAY! Finally! I actually had a lot of fun with this one. I think it's the longest so far, so that's fun. I also laughed a lot while writing this, so I hope you guys do too. There are some rough moments scattered throughout, and I think this chapter starts to show how this is all going to affect Marinette aside from just her being sad. It's just small moments for now, but in later chapters it'll get more obvious.
> 
> Please enjoy the contact names I came up with. I liked them, well, except for one of them, but I couldn't think of anything better so it stuck.
> 
> Also, while I love the title of this fic because it kind of encompasses everything I want from this story (ie Marinette really learning to count on others to help her when so often it's everyone else counting on her), every time I see the title I start singing You Can Count on Me by Bruno Mars. I love that song so it's fine, but the chorus gets stuck in my head, lol.

**MissAdrinette: Hey, Alya, I’m really sorry if I worried you…**

**RedWifi: Girl, what happened? You totally ghosted today.**

**MissAdrinette: I just got really sick last night. My parents freaked and brought me to the hospital and the doctors recommended I take a few days off to recover.**

**RedWifi: Omg are you okay? Did they say what was wrong?**

**MissAdrinette: The doctors didn’t really know…they said it was probably caused by stress or something and once I relaxed, I’d feel better.**

**RedWifi: I hope they’re right.**

**RedWifi: Hey, quick question…you weren’t near the akuma battle yesterday by any chance, were you?**

**MissAdrinette: No…why?**

**RedWifi: It’s nothing. I just wasn’t nearby and was hoping you might have gotten some photos or something for the Ladyblog?**

**RedWifi: Anyway, today sucked without you. But you missed SO much! Adrien totally called out Chloe in front of the whole class after lunch. I’ve never seen him so angry! I thought he was going to get akumatized…apparently Kim thought he was going to try to kill her and tackled him.**

**MissAdrinette: OMG is he okay???**

**RedWifi: Yeah, no little butterflies appeared so he was all good.**

**RedWifi: Oh, wait, you probably meant about Kim tackling him…**

**RedWifi: He’s fine! Maybe a little bruised, but no lasting injuries. He seemed to be holding it together pretty well too. Rose did her best to calm him down and it must have worked since class wasn’t interrupted.**

**MissAdrinette: That’s good…but what did Chloe say to make him that angry? He’s never angry with Chloe, at least not really.**

**RedWifi: We were talking about an article someone emailed me for the Ladyblog. Apparently Chat Noir helped arrest a guy last night, and everyone in class knew him. His name was Michel…Nino mentioned you were friends with his sister…?**

**MissAdrinette: Oh…yeah, we were really close…**

**RedWifi: Nino told me what happened…I’m really sorry, Marinette. We don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to…anyway, the reason Chat Noir arrested him was because he had abducted a girl. I don’t know who she was. The article didn’t have a name for her and the one photo of her was too blurry to make out any details. Chloe started saying some really awful stuff about her and Adrien LOST it.**

**RedWifi: You know that moment when you’re so angry, you’re calm? He was like that.**

**MissAdrinette: Alya, I have to go. My parents are calling me. Talk to you later.**

Marinette didn’t bother waiting for an answer. She locked her phone and abandoned it on her bed before climbing through her trap door to sit on her balcony. She curled up in the reclining chair and took a shuddering breath. Her blue eyes were glassy and unfocused.

They knew.

They may not know her name, but they knew that Chat had to save her. They probably knew what Chat saved her from. Somehow, a reporter had gotten enough information to put together an article for the Ladyblog. How long until they all knew exactly what happened? Did she have to tell them first? Would that be easier than letting rumors go around? Should she just not say anything and see if the rumors go away without them finding out anything? If there was a trial…

She wasn’t surprised by Chloe’s reaction. She had figured as much, honestly…but if Chloe was that cruel without knowing Marinette was the one Chat had to save, how would she act when she did know? Whatever she had said was horrible enough to almost akumatize Adrien, which genuinely worried Marinette. He had stayed positive enough to avoid any butterflies, but if Adrien got akumatized because of what happened to her…could she have fought him?

“Marinette?” Tikki called out as she joined her Chosen on the roof. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think I can do this, Tikki…” Marinette admitted, her voice strained.

“Do what?” Tikki asked, resting on Marinette’s hand.

“I just, this,” Marinette said, gesturing to everything and nothing with her free hand. “I can barely talk to my friends, I’ve hardly said anything to Chat or my parents or even you all day…and I still have the earrings so I still have to be Ladybug, but how can I save Paris when I couldn’t even save myself?”

“But Marinette, you _did_ save yourself! You sent me to get Chat so that he could save you, and you’re alive because of it!” Tikki insisted, hovering up to look Marinette in the eye when she tried to look away. “You can’t do everything by yourself, Marinette, and you don’t have to. That’s why you have Chat Noir, and why you chose Alya and Nino and Chloe to have a Miraculous. You can trust them to help you. And maybe trusting Chat to get you away from Michel alive meant you had to reveal your identity, but Marinette, you’re alive! You survived and now you can heal, and I know it won’t be easy, but you’ll have Chat to help you and your parents and your friends, and as long as you keep your Miraculous, you’ll have me.”

“But everything is different now, Tikki…”

“But maybe not in the ways you think. You’re so much stronger than you realize, Marinette,” Tikki said. “I know you may not see it right now, and I know being Ladybug is a really big responsibility, and you almost didn’t feel up to the challenge once. If you decide that it’s too much, I wouldn’t blame you for giving your Miraculous back to Master Fu and focusing on yourself. I don’t think anyone would.”

“Chloe would,” Marinette grumbled.

“So? Chloe doesn’t represent all of Paris, Marinette. Besides, she’s not nice. Her opinion on this doesn’t matter,” Tikki said. “You don’t have to worry about that now, though. For now, just worry about yourself and Chat and Master Fu and your parents and I will help you however we can.”

“But what happens if Hawkmoth akumatizes someone? He almost akumatized Adrien today,” Marinette said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to transform and fight.”

“If that happens, we’ll deal with it. Maybe the others will be fine if you only transform to purify the akuma,” Tikki promised.

“What if he akumatizes me…?” she asked, fiddling with one earring as her thoughts went to the worst possible scenario.

“You can beat him, Marinette,” Tikki promised.

“How are you so sure?” Marinette countered.

“You didn’t get akumatized this morning. Even with how upset you were, he couldn’t touch you. I’m not really sure why—well, I have a couple of ideas, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this—but I think Master Fu would be able to tell you more about it. If you wanted, I’m sure Chat would go with you tomorrow afternoon?” Tikki suggested.

“I don’t want him to go out of his way,” Marinette said. She really was touched that Chat had spent so much time trying to help her in the last twenty-four hours, but didn’t he have better things to do? Didn’t he have a life and friends and a family that he should be spending time with instead?

“Who’s going out of his way?” a voice behind her called. 

Marinette squeaked and pulled Tikki towards her immediately to hide her from whoever was behind her. She stood up and spun towards the voice. Her muscles tensed, and her heart started beating faster as her fight or flight response kicked in. When she realized she had backed herself into a corner against the railing of her balcony, she nearly passed out. It was a few minutes before she recognized the wide, glowing green eyes staring back at her from under a black mask. She blinked a few times in surprise.

“Everything okay, Princess?” Chat asked. He tried to keep his voice light to keep her from freaking out even more. He put down the bag he was carrying but didn’t move a muscle otherwise.

_Marinette, it’s just Chat. It’s Chat Noir, your partner who always has your back no matter what. You have nothing to worry about…_

“Fine. I’m fine,” she said, more to herself than to him. A few seconds later she realized she was still hiding Tikki and let her go. “You just startled me, is all. I didn’t realize you were there.”

“I’m sorry. I forgot you didn’t know I was coming tonight,” Chat said sincerely. Marinette nodded stiffly and settled back into her chair with her eyes closed and her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Chat perched on the railing near her and watched her take a few deep breaths. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Marinette. I really am sorry.”

“You didn’t scare me,” she said, but they both knew she was lying. “I just didn’t know who was there at first, and you’re the only person who knows about Tikki so if it wasn’t you, whoever was there would have seen her and exposed me as Ladybug and that would have been a nightmare…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Chat promised. Marinette smiled gratefully and nodded. They sat in silence until she seemed more at ease.

“You know, you never answered my question,” he said gently.

“I was talking about you, Chat. You don’t have to be here all the time. There must be a million other things you could be doing instead of sitting here while I cry or yell or don’t say anything…” she said. She kept her eyes straight ahead, staring at the Paris skyline through the railing to avoid looking at him. He nudged her leg gently with the toe of his boot until she finally looked up at him. He smiled warmly down at her.

“Buginette,” he said, and she actually smiled at the nickname in spite of everything, “I want to help you with this. I would never want you to feel like you have to go through this alone. You’re my partner, Marinette, but you’re also my best friend. I plan on being by your side until you tell me to leave.”

He noticed Marinette’s eyes start to water and worried he said the wrong thing, but seconds later she was throwing her arms around him with enough force to almost knock them both off the balcony. He grimaced and flicked out his baton with one arm to balance against the sudden contact as his other arm wrapped around her shoulders. The last thing he needed was to risk his bad luck sending them plummeting to their deaths. Or at least a serious injury. He wasn’t sure if someone would actually die if they fell from the roof of a three-story building, but he did not want to find out.

“So, do you want to share what you were talking to Tikki about? Besides me, at least,” Chat asked, nuzzling into her hair gently.

“Apparently the kids in my class found out about what happened last night,” she said softly. “Alya, you know her, right? The Ladyblog girl? Well, she’s my best friend and she was messaging me after school got out, and she said someone had sent her an article about it. They were all talking about it after lunch because most of my friends knew Michel too. She said that the, um, the guy that I like almost got akumatized…she said he was so angry he seemed calm…”

_Wait…Marinette’s crush almost got akumatized?_ Chat thought, his brain practically tripping over itself to put all of the new information together. _Oh my god…she has a crush on Kim! He was the only other person that seemed upset enough to get akumatized again. Unless it was Nino…but Marinette wouldn’t have a crush on her best friend’s boyfriend, would she? Should I start trying to get Kim to notice her? Maybe if the guy she liked started to like her back, she would be happier…or would that be pushing things? Should I wait? Oh…wait, I should say something…_

“Who is this crush, Milady?” Chat asked, his tone somewhat teasing. Mentally, he face-palmed. _Of all the things…why did I say that?_

“Don’t worry about him, Chat,” Marinette said, sighing. “To him, I’m just a friend. At this rate, I think that’s all I’ll ever be…”

“Why do you think that’s all you’ll ever be?” he asked. _Who could possibly meet Marinette and not love her? Except for Chloe, for some reason. But Kim definitely wasn’t Chloe…though he did have a crush on her for a while…_

“He could have anyone, and while I think he suspected I had a crush on him a while back, I kind of lied and told him I didn’t because I wasn’t ready to admit it,” she said. “Besides, he likes someone else. He actually asked me for advice on how to tell her once. I tried to give him good advice, but I’m not sure how well it worked out…an akuma attack kind of interrupted their date.”

“He did what? Well, whoever he is, he’s clueless,” Chat said, rubbing her back soothingly. _Oh, I am going to have words with Kim when she’s feeling better._

“Marinette?” Sabine called from inside Marinette’s room. “It’s time for dinner! If Chat Noir is up there, tell him to join us!”

“Coming, Maman!” Marinette called back. She looked up at Chat with a small smile. “Well, you heard her, Chaton. Let’s go.”

“Lead the way, Milady,” Chat said with a grin. He followed her down to the dining table, happy that he had cheered her up just a little bit.

Dinner that night was one of the best meals Adrien had ever had. It didn’t matter to the Dupain-Chengs that they didn’t know who he was under the mask and magic, they treated him like he was a part of the family. Mrs. Cheng asked how his family was and Mr. Dupain asked him about school, but they understood that he couldn’t tell them everything. They compromised by asking him about the best part of his day. The only question they asked that made him really hesitate was when they asked if they knew him as a civilian. He thought about it for a moment and said that yes, they did, and he loved their bakery but wasn’t able to stop by nearly as much as he wished he could. They smiled and left it at that, but Marinette shot him a curious look before shaking her head and finishing her meal.

Marinette didn’t seem to have much of an appetite, if the way she pushed her food around her plate was any indication, but Chat ate everything that was offered to him, which seemed to make her parents happy. He wasn’t sure why he was so hungry that night, but he blamed it on burning more calories as Chat than Adrien was technically supposed to eat on his diet. After the meal, he insisted on helping them clean up. 

It did not go unnoticed when Marinette snuck up to her room as soon as the dishes were put away. Chat frowned and followed her up.

She was sitting on her bed, looking at her phone. When he got close enough, he could see that it was still locked, but there were multiple notifications from RedWifi and DJBubbles. He barely contained his laugh at what must have been their best friends’ screen names.

“Are your friends looking for you?” Chat asked. Marinette looked sheepish when she realized he must have at least noticed their contact names.

“Yeah, they’re making sure I’m not dying,” Marinette said. “There’s a rumor going around that I came down with a mysterious illness. It doesn’t help that when Alya asked if I was sick, I told her yes but that the doctors didn’t know what it was…I said it was probably just stress, but I don’t think she believed me. She tells Nino everything, so as soon as she found out, she must have told him. They also wanted to know if I needed the homework from today or needed their notes.”

“Oh, right! I left the bag up on the balcony,” Chat said, jumping back up through the trap door. He dropped back down a second later, bag in hand. “Where do you want me to put it?”

“By the desk is fine,” Marinette said. She finished typing out a quick message to DJBubbles before putting her phone away.

“So, just out of curiosity, how did you come up with your friends’ contact names?” Chat asked. He had his suspicions, but he wanted to know her reasoning behind them.

“They’re, um, most of them are based on their akumatized selves,” Marinette admitted, huffing out a somewhat embarrassed laugh. “It’s kind of stupid, I know, and they don’t actually know that I did it so if you ever see them, don’t say anything, but seeing what mattered enough to them to cause them to be akumatized over it inspired me to be creative with their nicknames.”

“Oh! So, RedWifi was Alya, who was Lady Wifi, right?” Chat asked. He smiled when Marinette nodded. “So, then DJBubbles must be The Bubbler.”

“Exactly. Nino is a DJ, so that’s where the first part comes from,” Marinette explained. “Wait, you should remember that! He was on the same televised competition that caused Simon Says to be akumatized. He invited us to come dance for the second round!”

“I do remember that,” Chat said with a smile. “But, wait, where does the Red come from in Alya’s name?”

“Oh, that’s because she…” Marinette started to explain but cut her off when she realized that even though Chat knew she was Ladybug, he didn’t know Alya was Rena Rouge. It wasn’t fair to expose her identity like that, “has red hair. And her whole thing with the Ladyblog being dedicated to Ladybug, and as Ladybug I wear red, so it seemed appropriate.”

“Is it weird to you that your best friend has a blog dedicated to you?” Chat asked. He followed the Ladyblog, partly to see what people thought of the heroes and partly to support his friend, but it had never occurred to him that Alya might actually be Ladybug’s best friend.

“It’s a little weird,” Marinette admitted, “but it’s sweet. It reminds me of why I stayed Ladybug even after the nightmare with Stoneheart after I didn’t purify the akuma and it multiplied.”

“Wait, you wanted to quit?” Chat asked, his surprise evident on his face. He knew she had trouble believing in herself at first, but he didn’t realize she was close to quitting…

“I was going to give Alya the earrings…I thought she could do a better job. But then a Stoneheart clone threw a car at her before she found the box with the Miraculous in it and I had to do something,” she said, picking at invisible threads on her duvet. He could tell she really didn’t want to talk about that right now, and neither did he. If she decided she wanted to quit…that conversation could wait until she talked to Master Fu, at least.

“So, what are your other friends called in your phone?” Chat asked, changing the subject. Marinette smiled.

“Well, Kim is DarkRunner, who was Dark Cupid when he was akumatized—” Chat blinked once when she decided to start with Kim’s name. _Is that a point towards her liking Kim? Was I right?_ “—and Ivan stayed as Stoneheart because it just suited him. He seems like a really tough guy but he’s a total softy, especially towards Mylene. Then there’s Nathaniel as TheIllustrator, who was Evillustrator…that battle was the first time you met me as Marinette. Then Princess Fragrance is PrincessRose, and Max is MadGamer because he’s kind of a mad scientist even as a civilian,” Marinette said. Chat smiled.

“What about Reflekta?”

“Juleka is Forget-Me-Not. Her whole reason for becoming Reflekta was that she felt forgotten and ignored when Chloe forced her out of the class photo.”

“And Horrificator?”

“Mylene is Courage. Her akuma was based on fear, even though she tried really hard not to be afraid. Plus, for some reason her akuma kind of reminded me of that old cowardly dog cartoon where the dog is always terrified but still saves his family from monsters.”

“What about Timebreaker?” Chat asked. He was having way too much fun with this, but Marinette was smiling so he was happy.

“Alix is StrawberryShortstop,” Marinette answered, but hesitated before continuing, “as much as I could have turned her name into something cool, I try not to think about Timebreaker too much…”

“Wait, why?” he asked, frowning at the strange look in Marinette’s blue eyes. Of all of the akumas they had fought, he didn’t consider Timebreaker to be a particularly bad one. Sure, it was weird because there were two Timebreakers and two Ladybugs, but he thought Robustus was worse. Or Befana since Marinette’s grandmother was turning her friends to coal and trying to kill her on her birthday. Or even Animan, when he thought Ladybug had been eaten by a dinosaur.

“Oh, that’s right,” she realized, her voice barely above a whisper, “you don’t actually know what happened. You weren’t there for that—well, you were, but you weren’t…I hate time travel.”

“Bugaboo, what happened?” he asked hesitantly. What had he missed?

“You died,” she whispered, scrunching her eyes shut against the memory. “You jumped in front of me as she reached out to touch me and just, vanished…she used your energy to travel back in time and I managed to hitch a ride because I couldn’t let it happen again…”

“That’s why there were two of you? Oh my god, Marinette…” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her carefully. “I had no idea…”

“You were fine. You didn’t need to know. You were alive and the akuma was purified and I just did my best to forget about it,” Marinette said, resting her head against his shoulder. “I’ve never been more jealous of the fact that akuma victims forget what happened while they were akumatized than I was in that moment.”

“But you hid it so well! I thought I adjusted well when you jumped into the T-Rex’s mouth, but you never even let on that something happened,” he said, shock and awe evident in his voice. Marinette just shrugged.

“In our timeline, it didn’t. The Cure fixed it just like always, and I’m assuming would have fixed it in the other timeline as well, but I still remembered,” she said simply. “That said, I’d rather see Alix as a short, strawberry-haired athlete than as Timebreaker.”

“Yeah, I understand that. I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Chat apologized.

“No, I should have told you. You deserved to know. I just didn’t want to deal with it,” Marinette said.

“Bugaboo, I understand. I don’t know that I would have told you if our roles were reversed,” Chat admitted. “Now, what about some of the other akuma victims? Like Vanisher, Antibug, or Volpina?”

“Theirs are actually a little mean,” Marinette admitted, covering her face with her hands. “Sabrina—Vanisher—is Mouse. She’s kind of meek and mousy and she really needs better friends because Chloe has totally warped her sense of what friendship means, but she’s so loyal to Chloe that she won’t let people be better friends to her. I’ve tried. It was, an experience. She got really mad at me when I couldn’t help her with the assignment because I was helping you with Evillustrator.”

“That’s fair. I wouldn’t have come up with it, that’s for sure,” Chat said, smiling. “What about the other two?”

“Please understand that we just don’t get along, and that we’ve never gotten along? Please? Just don’t judge me for them…” Marinette said, peeking up at him through her fingers. He crossed his heart to promise, trying his best not to laugh at how embarrassed she was. He couldn’t imagine that anything Marinette had come up with could be as mean as Chloe could be on a daily basis. As much as he had a history with Chloe and really cared about her, that afternoon had shown him how truly awful she could be. Marinette sighed and continued, “Okay, well, Lila is Liarla. She always lies. She lied about being best friends with Ladybug and then she lied about having a real Miraculous, and I know she was lying about being in Achu with Prince Ali, but I can’t actually prove it except for the fact that Volpina was in that fight on Heroes’ Day, but I don’t know if anyone actually realized she was there. As for Chloe…I nicknamed her Wannabee. It was before she found the Bee Miraculous and became Queen Bee, so it wasn’t an intentional pun, but she was Antibug and she always dresses up as Ladybug, but she doesn’t like me, and I just think it’s weird. I have opinions, okay?”

Marinette finished in a huff. She didn’t know why she was so flustered after talking to Chat about the two mean girls in her class. She just put it down as being embarrassed that she actually had a mean streak too. She was surprised when Chat actually laughed.

“Honestly, Bugaboo, I think all of the nicknames you gave your friends are pretty spot-on,” Chat said, shooting her a Cheshire grin.

“Chaaaaaat,” she groaned. She grabbed her pillow and swatted him with it, which only made him laugh harder.

“I’m serious though, Marinette. I’ve seen the way you interact with your class, and my friend in your class has told me about how you get along with them,” Chat said. “I think your nicknames suit what I know about them and your interactions very well.”

“Thanks, Chat,” she said, smiling up at him.

“Anytime, Princess,” he said, nudging her shoulder. “Hey, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re doing a lot better than you were when I stopped by at lunch…is there anything you want to talk about?”

“Honestly, Chat…I just don’t want to think about it right now. It’ll still be there later and I just, I don’t want to cry over it again right now,” she said quietly. “I’d rather think about school, or anything else.”

Chat nodded and wracked his brain for a way to change the topic. He thought back to the pictures he had seen that morning and realized he hadn’t asked what her nickname for him was.

_Is it weird to talk about my civilian identity with her like this?_

“I just remembered, isn’t that Agreste kid in your class? The model?” Chat asked, deciding to follow that train of thought to wherever it led. He was completely oblivious to the way Marinette’s breath caught in her throat. “What’s his name in your phone?”

“Adrien…” Marinette murmured, her voice strained. Chat looked down at her and realized she was close to crying again. He swallowed hard and pulled her closer.

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I didn’t realize you disliked him so much,” he said softly. He felt her shake her head with a broken sob.

“That’s not, I just, I can’t,” she said, taking a shaky breath to try and calm down. “I can’t talk about that right now. I can’t talk about him…”

“It’s okay, Marinette. I understand,” he lied. She nodded and tried to calm herself down again. Chat didn’t understand why talking about him made her cry when talking about the rest of their class didn’t, but he wouldn’t force her to talk about it if she didn’t want to.

When she finally calmed down, he swiped his thumb across her tear-stained cheek gently. He hated seeing her upset, but he didn’t know what to do to help her. Sometimes he managed to get it right, but other times…

“You probably need to go now, don’t you?” Marinette asked.

“There is no place in this world I would rather be right now than here with you,” Chat said honestly. She looked surprised.

“But your family—”

“Won’t even notice I’m gone, I promise.”

“What about your homework? Unless you brought it here too?”

“My homework assignments are actually the same as yours. I glanced over them when I put them in my bag. Apparently, our teachers are covering the same material,” he said, technically not lying to her. “If you wanted to work on it, maybe I could help you? Or you can just forget all about it and watch a movie or try to fall asleep?”

“Are you sure you don’t have to leave? What about patrol? Tuesdays are your night.”

“I talked Queen Bee into doing patrol for me tonight. I told her I had something to do and that you told me yesterday that you were sick.”

“What did she want in return?” Marinette asked suspiciously. Chat laughed at how well she knew her classmate.

“For me to convince the others to call her Queen Bee while she was transformed instead of Chloe,” Chat said. 

“Ah, I see. Good luck convincing Rena,” Marinette said. “She was a little irritated that Chloe just revealed her identity to the whole world.”

“I think I’m going to need it,” Chat admitted. “So, movie or homework? Or sleep?”

“Homework,” Marinette said after a few minutes to weigh her options. “I need the distraction, and this way I won’t fall behind.”

She wiggled out of his arms and crawled over him to get to the stairs down to her desk, but he caught her wrist before she could get very far.

“Marinette, you know I won’t make you do or talk about anything you don’t want to, but maybe a distraction isn’t the best idea right now?” Chat asked. He knew he had just asked her about this, but while he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, something about her current mood seemed off somehow. He wanted to make sure she wasn’t just putting on a brave face. “It’s just, you’ve had a rough twenty-four hours and I don’t want you to push yourself to feel better before you’re really ready. It’s okay if you need more time.”

“Do you want me to be honest, Chat Noir?” Marinette asked, leveling him with an exhausted but exasperated look. “Because I’ll be honest with you: today sucked. I barely slept because of nightmares. I trashed my room and ripped all of my photos off of my wall in a fit because I was smiling in them. I didn’t speak to my parents until my mom called us for dinner. Besides talking to you and Tikki, the only real conversation I’ve had has been over text with Alya and Nino who both think I’m sick with the Bubonic Plague or something. I could have, and maybe should have, been akumatized, considering Hawkmoth has a tendency to akumatize people over the littlest things. It hasn’t been a fun day.

“I want a distraction because I hate feeling like this. I get angry and sad and irritated and insecure and emotional over petty things like everyone else, but it doesn’t last. Once I get away from the cause of the problem, I usually feel better. But right now, I feel like there’s this weight on my soul that I can’t get rid of. I don’t know how to get rid of it. But Chat, I can feel it and it’s dragging me down and if I focus on it for too long, I start to panic, and I feel like I’m drowning and then I’m back there and it’s happening all over again, and I just need to not think about it for like an hour. I want one hour where all I have to worry about is normal kid stuff like how I’m ever going to understand my science homework.”

He reached out and pulled her against him gently. She rested her head over his heart, and he realized she was trembling. He took slow, measured breaths in the hopes that she would slow her breathing to match his. She was quiet for a while, and Chat just held her patiently, twirling the ends of her pigtails around his claws.

“I know I can’t just ignore it forever,” she whispered eventually. “I can’t run away from it, and I can’t just pretend it never happened. Eventually, I know I have to face it head on. I have to go back to the hospital to get the test results and get more done. I have to talk to Lt. Raincomprix. I have to tell Alya eventually, although she’ll probably figure it as soon as she sees me. I know I’m going to have nightmares about it for a while and when I go see Master Fu he’ll probably want me to talk about it and I’m Ladybug and Paris is depending on me to help you and Rena and Carapace and Queen Bee stop Hawkmoth before someone gets hurt in a way that the cure can’t fix, but I just want at least one hour where I can just be Marinette and pretend that the worst thing in my life is homework that I need my friend to help me understand.”

“It’s okay, Marinette. I get it. If you want to do homework, we’ll do homework. Come on,” he said, guiding her down the stairs and to her desk. 

They spent the next two hours poring over the notes Chat had brought her—which as Adrien he had been sure to make extra detailed for her—and finishing the homework for that day. With the two of them working on it together and bouncing ideas off of each other and no akumas to interrupt them, they managed to complete the assignments surprisingly quickly. Once the homework was done and put away, they curled up on Marinette’s bed to watch a movie called Stardust to kill the last bit of time before Chloe would finish up patrol and he could go home without her noticing him.

Chat was hypersensitive to Marinette as she curled up in his arms and rested her head over his heart. Her left arm was draped across his torso, and her left let rested lightly on top of his, just shy of intertwining them. He held her a little tighter and didn’t bother to hide the soft purr that rumbled in his chest. He noticed a small, contented smile cross her features before she turned her full attention to the movie.

He wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep, but by the time the credits rolled, indicating that he had to go home, she was out cold. He carefully and reluctantly eased out of her grip and tucked her into bed with her Chat Noir doll. He moved her laptop off the bed and grabbed the bag with his homework in it before climbing onto the balcony and heading home.

When he finally dropped his transformation to get ready for bed, he pulled out his phone to check for any new messages. He was pleasantly surprised to see a message from Marinette on his screen.

**From: Marinette**

**Hi Adrien! I’m okay, the doctors said it was probably just stress or something, so no need to worry. They told my parents I had to stay home for a few days and they insisted I stay home for the rest of the week to be sure.**

He smiled at the message, despite his disappointment that she wasn’t willing to tell him what happened. He understood, of course, after how emotional she had gotten when he barely mentioned his name, but he didn’t quite understand why. At least she was willing to answer his message, so he hadn’t done anything to really upset her recently. Maybe he could convince her to trust him as Adrien enough to reach out if she needed something and he wasn’t transformed?

**To: Marinette**

**I’m glad you’re okay! If you need help relaxing, let me know! I’ve picked up a few tricks over the years. :)**

He hit send and prayed that the notification wouldn’t wake her up. Then he turned off the lights, switched his phone to full volume, and finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried not to leave the double entendre in the last text message from Adrien to Marinette. I really did try. But it stuck, because he would mean it to be totally innocent and it just, if it was ANYONE else it would just be weird, but it's him so it's like, still weird but it was an accident.
> 
> So, the nickname I disliked was Sabrina's. I like her too much to be satisfied with Marinette calling her Mouse, but I wanted her to have a nickname that didn't have to do with her being invisible, so I went to her wiki page to see what adjectives they used to describe her (meek, mousy, and loyal), so Mouse stuck.
> 
> Yes, Adrien is THAT clueless. And Chat is super sappy but it's cute.
> 
> I honestly think Timebreaker was the most ruthless episode of the whole series so far. Like people have been zapped and disappeared and had stuff happen to them in other episodes and Gabriel is not afraid to let people be hurt to achieve his goal, but Chat died to save Ladybug, and it has NEVER BEEN MENTIONED SINCE. I have opinions.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed! Thanks for much for reading! You guys are fantastic and I can't believe how many of you are reading and commenting and giving kudos??? It's so many! It's amazing! Thank you! (=^.^=)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is shorter, but I have finals starting tomorrow morning and wanted to make sure I got at least one chapter in before the chaos of the rest of this week sets in (or rather, before I deal with the chaos of the rest of this week).
> 
> We're finally at Wednesday! Well, Wednesday morning. There's a plot point I have for the first week of the story, but I haven't decided yet if it should happen on Wednesday or on Friday. We'll see how the next chapter goes and I'll decide then.
> 
> Also introducing: Alya being very bad at secret identity math. She manages 1+1=2, and then a different 1+1=2, but she can't quite get the 2s to add up to 4. She keeps getting 3 so she's close but not there yet.
> 
> There's one big Easter Egg in this, and one that is smaller but possibly more obvious because it's a pop culture reference (there's also a few historical references if anyone recognizes them but I won't ask you to find those since they're really vague). If anyone can name both of them correctly in the comments, I'll finish the next update before Friday.
> 
> Very mild trigger warning that I feel a little silly mentioning but would rather be safe than have one of you be hurt by it: There is a very slight reference to self harm in the middle of this chapter. There's no cutting or anything violent or gory, so don't worry too much, but if you're sensitive towards anything related to that please be careful. If anyone needs me to tag it properly just let me know and I will apologize profusely. I think I fixed it so it shouldn't be a problem, but just in case...I felt like anyone with possible triggers should be warned, but it's pretty much in line with the rest of the fic as far as the tone of the scene goes.

“Nino!” Alya called, practically tackling her boyfriend when she finally caught up to him on the walk to school on Wednesday morning. “I need you to help me make sense of this!”

“Make sense of what?” Nino asked. He reached up to readjust his hat after Alya had accidentally jostled it.

“The article!”

“Are you still trying to decide whether or not to post it? Why don’t you just do what Trixx suggested and summarize it in a post to thank Chat Noir?”

“This isn’t about posting it! It’s about the girl in the photo. Something just isn’t adding up!”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay, just listen: Chat Noir plus girl with black hair almost always means Ladybug, right? Like 8 out of 10 times that dark-haired girl is Ladybug,” Alya said, a very serious expression on her face.

“Probably more than 8 out of 10 times but continue,” Nino said, waiting to see where this was going.

“But on the other hand, if Max’s calculations with his statistics were right yesterday and the girl is someone he knew and likely someone that we knew, then there’s a very high chance that Michel Boivin plus girl with black hear means Marinette,” Alya continued. Nino stopped walking and turned her to face him.

“Alya, Marinette told you that she was nowhere near the akuma fight on Monday,” Nino reminded her. “She can’t have been the girl in the picture.”

“But what if she was, Nino?” Alya asked, her eyes shining with worry. “What if she was and she doesn’t want us to know?”

“Then I’d say she doesn’t want us to know,” Nino said, shaking his head. He took Alya’s hand and started walking again, ignoring her frustrated glare. “Besides, Alya, you’re basing all of this on some random statistics that Max brought up in class. He knew less about the situation than you do, Alya. He could be wrong.”

“But I did the math for this!” Alya exclaimed. “Okay, if you don’t like that math, I have more variables to consider! Monday morning, Marinette was fine. She was wearing that dress she had finally finished embroidering and looked super cute and had painted her nails and everything. Tuesday morning, Marinette is sick with a mysterious illness that she says is just stress, but her parents think is serious enough that she can’t have any visitors. In between, an article pops up about a girl who was abducted by someone Marinette knew fairly well, and there is a picture that looks enough like her that it could possibly be her.”

“But if it was Marinette, how do you explain Chat Noir being the one to find her? Especially at 8:30 pm on Ladybug’s patrol night, when patrol always starts at 9:00?” Nino countered.

“I…I can’t,” Alya admitted. Nino squeezed her hand reassuringly as she visibly deflated.

“I think you might be looking for connections that aren’t necessarily there,” Nino said. “You might be right. Maybe it was Marinette in that photo. But there are a lot of other details that don’t add up. If it was Marinette, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

“I know,” Alya sighed. “I’m just worried. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to patrol last night. I might have been able to flag Chat Noir down and ask him about it.”

“Chat Noir wasn’t patrolling last night,” Chloe interrupted, appearing out of nowhere as they reached the school. “I was.”

“What?” Alya and Nino asked in unison.

“Tuesdays are Chat Noir’s patrol nights though…and usually if he takes one of Ladybug’s Monday patrols, she’ll take his Tuesday ones,” Alya continued.

“I bumped into him yesterday around lunchtime and he asked me to take over his patrol for him, and because I’m such a good person I said yes,” Chloe explained, tossing her ponytail. “He said Ladybug was sick or something.”

“She seemed fine on Monday afternoon, though,” Alya said.

“That akuma fight did take a really long time though. Maybe it took too much out of her,” Nino suggested.

“I was fine after it,” Chloe said.

“She has been doing this a lot longer, Chloe. And it seemed like Ladybug had to recharge a lot more than usual, or more than the rest of—” Alya cut herself off, barely catching herself before she accidentally revealed her identity to her classmate “—you did. It was like she couldn’t get her Lucky Charms to work.”

“Yeah, I think that every time she called for her Lucky Charm it was like how in the fight on Heroes’ Day, the Lucky Charm relied on everything being exactly the way it was but the akuma kept multiplying and changing the circumstances,” Nino added. “The Mathmagician was a really tricky akuma.”

“Well, Chat did say she might have had family come into town and couldn’t get away,” Chloe said, walking ahead of them as Sabrina ran over to meet them. “I don’t know why she would call Chat Noir and not me, but I was so busy that I couldn’t possibly have helped. There are so many responsibilities that come with being a superhero, you simply wouldn’t understand.”

“No, I guess we really wouldn’t,” Alya said sarcastically, catching Nino’s eye-roll as the blonde walked away. 

“Pretty weird that Ladybug is sick too,” Nino commented as they walked into class. “That might be a point towards our mystery girl being whoever Ladybug is behind the mask.”

“Oh, so now you believe my theory about girls randomly getting sick,” Alya sassed. “But if it was Ladybug, then what is wrong with Marinette?”

“Alya, my love, if you don’t know what’s wrong with Marinette, I can promise you that I don’t know. Wait and see if you hear from her today,” Nino said, leaning in closer so he could lower his voice before continuing, “and if you don’t, maybe we can stop by tonight on patrol to check up on her. Just a short visit, just to make sure she’s alive, and we won’t disturb her if she’s asleep. Okay?”

“Okay,” Alya agreed. 

They sat down at their desks just as Madame Bustier walked into class. Adrien, who had unsurprisingly already been in his seat and staring at his phone, pulled out his notebook and focused all of his attention on the class. Neither Alya nor Nino noticed what he had been staring at, but something in his expression made it seem like he was disappointed. Nino made a mental note to ask about it later.

~*~*~*~

Marinette had given up on sleeping hours before the sun began to lighten the sky that morning. A continuous stream of vague and detailed nightmares plagued her mind, just as they had for the last few nights. She had spent several hours tossing and turning after the first one that night, trying desperately to fall back asleep. She succeeded for a short time, but a different nightmare woke her up in a cold sweat. Her skin was crawling, and she desperately needed a distraction.

She picked up her phone and the first thing she saw was a notification from Adrien. She was tempted to respond, but it was still too early for him to be awake and she didn’t want to wake him. She also didn’t want him to worry about her, or for him to start asking her why she was awake so early. She didn’t think she had it in her to lie to him about what was wrong, and she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth, so it was better if he just never realized something was wrong with her at all. They could just go back to normal…

_Except you won’t go back to normal,_ a nasty little voice inside of her head that sounded like Chloe reminded her. _You’re ruined. You’re broken. Why would he still care about you, except to pity you?_

“Shut up,” she practically growled at the voice, feeling her panic start to rise again. “He’s one of my friends, he won’t just stop caring.”

_How can you be sure?_ the voice taunted. _And what about Alya? Or Nino? How will they react when they find out? And then when you tell them that you’re Ladybug, they won’t trust you enough to want to continue working with you, and Hawkmoth will win because you’re a failure of a hero._

“I won’t let him win,” Marinette said, her voice weaker than she wanted it to be. She blinked rapidly to fight off tears, wanting to get herself back under control.

_But you let Michel win._

That was the final straw for Marinette. She rubbed the tears from her eyes and made her way to the bathroom. She closed the door, then turned on the shower as hot as it would go. She turned her back to take off her pyjamas and take her hair out of her pigtails, and while she was distracted, Tikki zipped over and turned the temperature down so she wouldn’t accidentally burn her skin. 

Marinette stepped into the shower, grabbed her soap, and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed every inch of her skin. She exfoliated until she had scrubbed her skin raw, and then she exfoliated some more until Tikki finally stopped her. She wanted to scrub away every inch of her body that Michel had ever touched. She wanted to scrub away every bruise that she hid under her clothes. She wanted to scrub away the marks on her wrists and legs from the rope. Maybe if she scrubbed hard enough, she could even scrub away the weight that had settled in her soul, the one she had ignored with Chat the night before. The one that would not be ignored now. She had practically scrubbed until she bled, and Tikki had a sinking feeling that was exactly what a small part of Marinette wanted to do: give an external reason for her internal pain. She comforted her Chosen as best as she could, regretting she couldn’t have done more.

The last time one of Tikki’s Ladybugs had been hurt like this, she was Ladybird, and she had been older. She had already married her Black Cat, and they’d had kids. The villain of that era had found out her identity and burned her house down while both of them were away. Only their youngest child, Ann, had escaped, but she died not long after from smoke inhalation. They each reacted very differently to the loss. Ladybird shut herself in to mourn for her children, while her Black Cat sought revenge without her. He stayed away from her for months in an attempt to track down the villain that stole their children from them, but he lost control in the battle and almost died. Ladybird had found him and healed him in time, and together they defeated the villain. Their powers had changed immediately after losing their children. There were things Ladybird found she needed that just appeared in her hand, whether she had called for her Lucky Charm or not, and whether or not she was transformed. Sometimes these things were as simple as a spoon to help her stir a drink, and sometimes these things were more elaborate. One of Tikki’s favorite items from that time period was the compass that pointed only to her Cat. His powers were different. He was able to use his Cataclysm from a distance. It started when he accidentally Cataclysmed something while not transformed, and eventually he channeled it to being able to focus on an object, touch the ground, and the energy would travel through the ground in a controlled crack to reach the intended object. Had he held onto the Black Cat Miraculous after their villain was defeated, Tikki and Plagg suspected he would have been able to shoot his Cataclysm through the air.

One thing Tikki knew for sure was that every Miraculous holder reacted to the trauma differently. One Black Cat used his Cataclysm on the person who had killed his Ladybug while she was a civilian and triggered the Black Plague. Others had caused massive natural disasters, such as the destruction of Pompeii. Foxes have driven people insane with their illusions. Butterflies learned to control people without modifying their appearance, for unlimited amounts of time, and used these armies to become dictators. Turtles would trap people for weeks at a time. Bees found that their paralytic venom now acted as a poison, and that all they had to do to use it outside of the suit was kiss someone, or in truly strong cases, they simply had to pinch someone. Ladybugs had chosen to abuse their power as well, typically when they gained power over luck and probability manipulation. Their pain would cause them to turn on their friends and partners and loved ones to focus on getting revenge on the world that hurt them. It eventually came down to the Guardian and the uncorrupted heroes to stop them.

Of course, for everyone who reacted badly to the trauma, there were many who used their new powers to protect and heal people so that what happened to them wouldn’t happen to others. A big part of this reaction depended on how their power developed to suit their needs post-trauma. The Ladybugs who were able to use their Cure in and out of the suit usually became healers and learned to wipe away even the worst of illnesses and injuries. They healed people who had been harmed but weren’t able to go to a proper hospital or the police. The Cats, if they gained control over bad luck, learned to focus it on criminals so they would be easier to apprehend. Some of the Foxes became therapists and used their illusions to help their patients work through their own problems, or they found ways to help people with music if their power developed that way. Turtles reinforced the walls around their city, preventing attackers from coming through the gates while allowing people to leave if they so wished. Butterflies learned to help people feel happier with just a thought sent their way. Bees were able to use their sting to give people their physical strength back, and sometimes this evolved to them learning to make natural remedies using their venom and honey. 

Tikki was confident that Marinette’s power would evolve in a positive way. She could feel her Chosen’s energy shifting, and it was different from any shift she had seen before. The first wave was pure, unaltering pain, but under that was something stronger and ultimately peaceful. Tikki suspected that was why there had been no akumas the day before, even though Marinette and Adrien had both been targets, but she wouldn’t know for sure until they went to see Master Fu.

When Marinette finally switched from scrubbing at her skin to washing her hair, Tikki helped her, hoping to help her relax a little. It didn’t calm the girl as much as she had hoped it would, but at least when the water ran cold Marinette had finished everything she had to do and wouldn’t have to wash her hair with ice water. 

Marinette got out and wrapped herself in a fluffy towel, then twisted her hair up into a smaller towel. She made her way back to her bedroom and pulled out a pair of black yoga pants, an oversized, one-shouldered, baby pink sweater that reached her mid-thigh, and a ladybug patterned tank top. She brushed her hair and Tikki helped her tie it into her usual pigtails. Feeling better, she walked downstairs to find a mug of still-warm hot chocolate on the counter and a fresh croissant with butter and jam waiting for her. A note from her parents said they had heard her get in the shower when they woke up to get things started in the bakery. Marinette ate quickly while Tikki flew to where they kept the cookies, then went up to her balcony to watch the sun rise.

~*~*~*~

As soon as Adrien had left for school, Gabriel had gone to his lab to see if anyone could be akumatized that morning. He had already missed one day in his plan to get his wife back, and he didn’t enjoy having to put his plans on hold. The window opened up as soon as he was in the room to illuminate the space, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the new piece of furniture that had been added since the previous morning.

“Nathalie!” Gabriel called, trusting she would be able to hear him. She came through the lair entrance a few minutes later and stood behind him calmly.

“Yes, sir?” Nathalie asked, her voice as composed as always.

“What, exactly, is that?” Gabriel asked, pointing to the plastic table with matching stools placed near the window.

“You asked me to put a table in here, did you not?” Nathalie asked, arching one eyebrow with the utmost precision.

“I specifically told you not to place a plastic table in here,” Gabriel said, his patience wearing thin.

“I simply thought you might like a way to relieve stress before the table I ordered arrived,” Nathalie said. “I also thought you might appreciate the reminder of your family, which is the whole reason you come here every day. Emilie and Adrien would sit at that table when it was in your office and play all day while you worked so they could spend more time with you. I thought you would like to have it in here. Perhaps your butterflies will like it instead.”

“But why is there a plastic tea set placed on top of it if I am only going to be throwing it around?” 

“They were in the box. I thought maybe your butterflies would like to have something interesting to perch on, and the teapot has water in it for them, or you, if you feel so inclined. I’m sure you get quite dehydrated spending all day in here.”

“Nathalie?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You are testing my patience,” Gabriel ground out. Nathalie fought back a smirk.

“Well, I should probably stop doing that,” Nathalie said. “After all, we wouldn’t want you to become akumatized.”

“Get out,” Gabriel said indignantly. Nathalie nodded and left, her eyes sparkling with mirth. He heard her burst out laughing as soon as she was away from him and shook his head.

He transformed and felt for any negative emotions that might already be crying out for him to take advantage of. Soon, a very intense pain wafted in to greet him.

“Her again?” Hawkmoth asked in frustration. “Why is she the only person in all of Paris that is in pain?”

He wasn’t going to pass up an attempt to akumatize her, however, so he held out his hand for a butterfly and quickly corrupted it. He sent it out to her, crossing his fingers that his akuma would reach its target this time.

When it purified by itself as soon as it flew past the glass, Gabriel’s eye twitched. There was a moment of tense silence, then he stalked to the window, grabbed one of the small plastic stools placed beside the plastic table and flung it across the room at full force.

“Nathalie!” Hawkmoth roared. He knew full well he had just kicked her out of his lair, but that didn’t stop her from coming back in when he called her name. She smirked in satisfaction when she saw he had taken advantage of the table and stool she had left despite his displeasure at the material.

“Yes, Hawkmoth?” Nathalie asked, in a tone of voice that indicated she was much more amused by all of this than he was.

“I want you to find out everything there is to know about this girl,” Hawkmoth ordered. “I want to know where she lives, what she likes, who her friends are, who she’s related to, who her crush is, what happened to her the other day that is preventing me from akumatizing her…I want to know everything, and I want to know it by lunchtime.”

“Very well,” Nathalie replied, pulling out her tablet to make notes. “I have to ask though, sir, who is she? Do you know?”

“I believe she’s a girl in Adrien’s class, the aspiring designer who won the hat competition with her pigeon-themed derby hat,” Hawkmoth said.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, sir?” Nathalie asked.

“Something like that,” Hawkmoth said. “I don’t care who you have to question or even bribe for information, I want to know everything there is to know about her.”

“Very well,” Nathalie said. “Is that all?”

“Yes,” Hawkmoth muttered, waving her off. 

Once she was gone, he huffed and sat down on one of the little stools heavily. All of his butterflies immediately swarmed around him, landing on the stools and tea set and open spots of the table. He grumbled to himself about how that brat was ruining his plans as he poured some water for himself. As he sipped his water and stared out the window, he decided on a new plan.

If her pain was going to interrupt his plans, he would have to find a way to force her to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I got this mental image of Hawkmoth sitting at a teeny-tiny little red table drinking tea with his butterflies and couldn't resist adding it into this chapter. But what, exactly, do you think Hawkmoth has planned?
> 
> Did you get the reference? ;)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! This chapter is way overdue...and unfortunately it's a filler chapter. The main plot I was planning on introducing in this chapter would have gone at the very end, but that would have been another 1000 words minimum and this was already getting long so...
> 
> There are plot points that are introduced/set up in this chapter that will be significant later, though, so this chapter isn't just here for show. I hope y'all enjoy it!

Adrien had slept well that night, but he was a little disappointed when he checked his phone for notifications and saw that he had none. He hoped that Marinette had just not needed anyone during the night, but he was a little worried that she just didn’t want to text him. She didn’t even want to talk about him the evening before…what had he done to upset her?

_Is she still upset about the gum incident? But so much has changed since then…think, Adrien…but don’t think of yourself in third person…that’s just weird. What did I do? I must have done something! She seemed like we were okay after the Lila issue and the seats…she kissed my cheek, but that was before the Lila thing, and it was just to say thank you after I called her Ladybug…oh my God, I compared Ladybug’s civilian identity to Ladybug…does she think I know? Well, I do know, now, but I didn’t then! And she still doesn’t know I’m me…wait, what if she starts to think I’m Hawkmoth? Is that why she’s mad at me? Does she think I’m Hawkmoth?_

He wracked his brain to come up with anything else that would have upset her and kept drawing a blank. He had to find some way to fix this, but he couldn’t without revealing his identity, but Master Fu had already warned him not to do that until she was ready. Maybe he could say something as Chat Noir to convince her Adrien wasn’t Hawkmoth. In the meantime, he needed a way to keep in touch with her even when he wasn’t transformed. The best idea he could come up with was getting a second phone with a new number that she could reach Chat on, but that had a whole new set of potential problems. What if his father or Nathalie found out about the new phone? What if Nino and Alya saw it and started asking questions? Somebody once told him that only drug dealers had two phones…what if Marinette saw that he had two phones and thought he was a drug dealer?

_No, she’s smarter than that. She’d figure out that the second phone was Chat Noir’s, right?_

“Dude! Earth to Adrien?” Nino called. He waved his hand in front of his best friend’s face to snap him out of his trance.

“What?” Adrien asked, shaking his head to clear it. “What’s happening?”

“It’s lunch. Are you coming or not?” Nino asked.

“You can’t bail on us twice in a row!” Alya said, putting her hands on her hips.

“Um, I don’t know if I can,” Adrien said. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Technically he hadn’t promised Marinette that he would be there for lunch today…

_But what if she needs me and can’t get in touch with me because she doesn’t know I’m Adrien? Er, that I’m Chat? No wait…she doesn’t know that Adrien is Chat Noir. That’s what I meant to say. Has Marinette been rubbing off on me?_

“Have you heard from Marinette today?” Adrien asked instead. Maybe if he changed the subject, that would give him time to figure out a believable lie. That usually worked when Alya was involved, right?

“No, not today,” Alya said. “Why are you changing the subject? Are you just going to bail on us all week until Marinette comes back to class?”

“What? Of course not,” Adrien said as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He was trying to act offended that she would even suggest that. She wasn’t wrong, but she had jumped to the correct conclusion for the wrong reason. It reminded him of getting the right answer on a math assignment by making two mistakes that cancelled each other out. “I’m just asking. I heard from her last night, but she never answered the last text I sent.”

“She messaged you?” Alya and Nino asked in unison.

“You seem surprised?” Adrien asked in response. “Does she really not like me?”

“Dude, no, that’s not it at all,” Nino said quickly, and Adrien let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. “It’s just that her messages to us have been a little shorter than usual. We’re just assuming it’s because she’s not feeling well, but she usually only texts like that when she’s upset about something but doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“Oh,” Adrien said lamely. “Well, she only sent me one message that basically said she just needed rest, and I told her to let me know if she needed anything, but she hasn’t responded…”

“Don’t take it too personally, dude,” Nino said, patting his shoulder. “She hasn’t responded to any of us.”

“Why don’t we stop by the bakery for lunch? Maybe she’s well enough for us to go up and visit with her? And if not, we can get macarons,” Alya suggested. 

“They do make good macarons,” Nino agreed, then his smile turned teasing as he turned to his girlfriend. “They’re almost fanfiction worthy.”

“Okay, I know you’re trying to tease me, but I stand by what I said,” Alya sassed, holding up one finger to emphasize her point. “So, Adrien? Are you joining us?”

_Marinette isn’t likely to want to see all of us, but maybe I can have Plagg fly up to her room and see if she needs to talk to Chat…if she doesn’t and just doesn’t want company, I’ll stick with Alya and Nino but if she does, I can say Father wants me to go home…_

“Sure, I’ll go with you guys,” Adrien said. “Their croissants are the best in the city.”

“We may all just be biased, you realize that, don’t you?” Nino asked.

“Of course not! The Dupain-Chengs are magical and Adrien is a woodland pixie who likes croissants so much he left the forest to go to a school down the street from the best bakery in the world,” Alya said, turning on her heel and bouncing down the stairs. “Let’s go! We shouldn’t deprive the pixie of the entire reason he suffers through our mundane human existence!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Nino said as he and Adrien burst out laughing. There was an affectionate smile on his face when Alya turned to stick her tongue out at him.

“And you’re as slow as a turtle! Let’s go! It’s lunchtime!” Alya said, walking out of the room. Nino shook his head and followed her, that same affectionate smile still on his face. Adrien grabbed his bag and hesitated for a minute, waiting for a few seconds to let Nino and Alya get out of earshot.

“Plagg,” he whispered as soon as he felt the coast was clear, “I need you to do something for me.”

“You want me to go talk to your girlfriend for you, don’t you?” Plagg asked sarcastically. Adrien felt his ears turn red.

“She’s not my girlfriend. But yes. When we get to the bakery, will you just see if she’s okay? I don’t want to impose as Chat if she doesn’t want company or is resting, and I never told her I would stop by for lunch today, so she might not be expecting me,” Adrien said. “Just tell her I’m in the area and can stop by if she needs anything.”

“Okay,” Plagg agreed easily, which caught Adrien by surprise. It was a few moments before the kwami remembered to add, “But you had better get me one of those cheese danishes she gives me.”

“Deal,” Adrien said with a smile. Plagg flew back into his hiding spot, and Adrien ran to catch up with his friends. He told them that he had just dropped his pencil and wanted to find it before he left the classroom.

~*~*~*~

When they arrived at the bakery, Adrien stepped back to let Alya and Nino through the door first. Plagg took that moment to fly out of his pocket and up to Marinette’s room.

He found her sitting in her chair on the balcony. Tikki noticed him first. She was perched on her Chosen’s knee, doing her best to provide comfort even though it was clear neither of them had much to say. Tikki smiled tightly at him and waved him over. It wasn’t until he was practically sitting next to Tikki that he realized he didn’t have a clue as to what he should say. He had only ever really interacted with Ladybug once and that was to protect her from that glitter akuma, Style Queen. So, he went with what he knew.

“Got any cheese?” he asked. Marinette’s head popped up in surprise, unsure of where the voice had come from until her eyes landed on him. Tikki sighed at her other half’s lack of tact.

“Oh, Plagg. Hi,” Marinette said after a moment. She certainly hadn’t expected to see Chat Noir’s kwami any time soon. “I can get you some cheese if you want. Is everything okay?”

“That’s actually what I came to see,” Plagg said, landing on Marinette’s knee gently. “The kid is in the area and he wanted to see how you were doing, but he didn’t want to intrude if you wanted to be alone.”

“Oh,” Marinette said simply. She looked away from the kwami and bit her lip, obviously trying to weigh her options.

“I can tell him to leave you alone if you want me to. All you have to do is say the word,” Plagg said, his voice coming out a little strained even as he tried to sound as normal as possible. If Ladybug or Tikki thought he sounded as strange as he did, neither of them pointed it out. 

_The things I do for these kids. Tikki is the one that’s good at the emotional stuff, not me!_

“No! No, I don’t think I want him to leave me alone…” Marinette said. She took a breath to steady herself and made a decision. “Would he be willing to bring me to see Master Fu today? There are some things I think I need to talk to him about, but I don’t want to go alone…”

“Ladybug, if you want to go see Master Fu, I’ll tell him that’s what you want to do,” Plagg said. “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Plagg,” Marinette said. She hesitated for a second, then she reached out and scratched the back of Plagg’s ear affectionately. His eyes closed in bliss for a second before he pulled away with an unconvincing look of disgust.

“Yeah, yeah, just feel better, okay?” Plagg grumbled, flying back to his Chosen.

~*~*~*~

Mrs. Cheng was at the register when Alya, Nino, and Adrien walked in. She waved to them with a bright smile.

“Hi kids! How’s school?” Mrs. Cheng asked.

“Boring without Marinette,” Alya said as she and Nino turned to pick out some pastries for lunch. Adrien was the only one that noticed the minute change in Mrs. Cheng’s expression.

“How’s she doing?” Adrien asked. He grabbed a croissant for himself and a cheese danish for Plagg.

“She’s…recovering,” Mrs. Cheng eventually said.

“Can we go see her?” Alya asked. She was practically bouncing on her toes, hoping she could convince Mrs. Cheng to let them upstairs.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Mrs. Cheng trailed off when she saw their expressions. They were all a mix of worry and disappointment, and since she didn’t know if Chat Noir would be stopping by today… “but how about I go ask her if she’s feeling up to having company?”

“Would you?” Nino asked.

“I won’t let you upstairs if she doesn’t want to see anyone, but I’ll ask her what she wants,” Mrs. Cheng said. “Just keep in mind, she needs to rest.”

“Of course,” Adrien said, nodding quickly. The others followed suit, and Mrs. Cheng left her husband in charge of the counter to go ask her daughter what she would prefer.

The croissant and hot chocolate she had left on the counter for Marinette were gone, but Marinette was nowhere to be seen in the living room, so she walked up the stairs into her bedroom. When she didn’t receive a response to her knock, she opened the door and walked in.

“Marinette?” Mrs. Cheng called, looking around the room for her daughter but not seeing her anywhere. She frowned but decided to check the balcony before worrying that Marinette had snuck out, or worse…she shook off those thoughts and opened up the trap door and looked out. She saw Marinette curled up in her chair, staring at something on the horizon. “Is something wrong, sweetheart?

“Besides the obvious?” Marinette asked, her tone more clipped than she intended. She realized how short it had come out and sighed. “Sorry, Maman. I’m just tired. Did you need something?”

“Alya, Nino, and Adrien are downstairs in the bakery,” Mrs. Cheng said, and saw the way Marinette’s shoulders instantly tensed at their names. “They asked if they could come visit with you for lunch, and I thought I’d ask if you wanted them to come upstairs or not.”

“I don’t…” Marinette said, shaking her head sadly. “And they can’t. I, um, I asked Chat Noir to bring me to see a therapist he told me about, if that’s okay? I don’t know if he told you or Papa about him, but I trust him, and he thinks this therapist could really help me.”

“He mentioned it to your father. If that’s what you want, it’s fine by me. I’m really proud of you for reaching out for help already, Marinette.”

“Thanks, Maman.”

“Just don’t be gone for too long, okay? Lt. Raincomprix called and said he needs to ask you some more questions this evening regarding what happened, and your father and I are hiring a lawyer for the trial and we want you to meet with him before you go talk to Lt. Raincomprix again. I hate rushing you on this but Lt. Raincomprix said they can’t hold Michel much longer without setting a date for the trial.”

“Okay. I’ll let you and Papa know when Chat and I are leaving.”

“And I’ll tell your friends that you’re taking a nap and don’t want to be disturbed,” Mrs. Cheng said. Marinette nodded, and her mom smiled at her before walking back downstairs.

“Sorry, kids,” Mrs. Cheng said, taking over the register again. “Marinette said she wanted to take a nap.”

“Mrs. Cheng, what’s wrong with her?” Alya asked, worry dripping from her words. “She wouldn’t tell us.”

“She just needs rest, Alya,” Mrs. Cheng said. “I’ll have her call you when she’s feeling better, okay?”

“Okay,” Alya grumbled. 

Mrs. Cheng motioned for them to pick out a few macarons each, and while their backs were turned Adrien felt Plagg float into his pocket. He glanced down at Plagg, who nodded silently up at him. Adrien thought quickly. He had to make his exit after he left the bakery with Alya and Nino, so Mrs. Cheng wouldn’t suspect him of being Chat Noir. He’d have to say Nathalie texted him... 

_I’ll make it up to them later. Right now, my lady needs me._

It was a few minutes before they finished picking out their pastries, but finally they were leaving the bakery. Adrien pulled out his phone while Alya and Nino decided where to go eat their pastries.

“I actually have to go home,” Adrien interrupted them. “Nathalie texted me. Father wants me home for lunch today.”

“Man, seriously?” Nino asked, frowning. “Do you want us to wait with you until your driver gets here?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I told Nathalie I was just around the corner and that I would walk. It’s really not far,” Adrien assured them. He just needed to get away from them long enough to transform…

“We’ll walk with you then,” Alya said. “Like you said, it’s not far.”

“You guys really don’t have to waste your lunch hour to walk with me,” Adrien said quickly. “Go to the park or something and eat. I’ll see you in class.”

“I swear, you only came with us today to see Marinette,” Alya teased.

“What?” Adrien asked, his voice pitched a bit higher than normal. He cleared his throat before continuing, “Alya, don’t be absurd. I love hanging out with you guys! I just didn’t realize Father wanted me home today.”

“Sure, Sunshine,” Alya said, rolling her eyes. “If you say so. But you owe us lunch tomorrow. Deal?”

“I’ll do my best,” Adrien promised. “I’ll see you guys later!”

Adrien ran off in the direction of his house before either of his friends could respond. When he was sure they wouldn’t notice, he ducked into an alleyway.

“So, she does want me to visit today?” Adrien asked Plagg as his kwami flew out of his pocket.

“Yes. She wants you to take her to go visit Master Fu,” Plagg said. “She said she wants to talk to him, but I don’t think she feels comfortable leaving her house alone yet.”

“Okay. Eat your pastry and then we’ll go,” Adrien said, pulling the cheese danish and the croissant out of his bag. They ate quickly, and as soon as they both finished Adrien called for his transformation and leapt over the rooftops back to Marinette’s house. She was still sitting on her balcony, but she was facing the opposite direction. He remembered how she had reacted when he landed behind her the night before and circled around to approach her from her line of sight.

“Hello, my Lady,” Chat said as he landed on her balcony.

“Hey, Chat,” Marinette said, smiling tiredly. He frowned.

“How are you feeling?” Chat asked, crouching down near where she sat.

“I’m just tired, kitty,” Marinette said with a shrug. “Nothing you really need to worry about.”

“Marinette, you should know by now that I am absolutely going to worry about you,” Chat said. “What is it? Have you not been sleeping?”

“It’s just…nightmares. I’ve been having them all week, ever since Sunday night,” Marinette admitted. “I barely slept last night, and then this morning…”

“What happened?” Chat pressed. Marinette hesitated, so he continued, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Plagg said you wanted to go see Master Fu, so if you don’t want to talk about it, we can go straight there. But I’m here if you need me, okay?”

“I know, Chat,” Marinette said. “I just…can we just go see Master Fu?”

“Of course. Should we tell your parents we’re leaving?” Chat asked.

“Yeah, I told my mom I would. I’ll go see if they’re in the living room. If not, I’ll leave a note,” Marinette said. She eased herself out of her chair and made her way downstairs while Chat waited on the balcony for her. She came back up five minutes later, her purse on her shoulder for Tikki to hide in.

“How do you want to do this? Do you want to transform, and we’ll run together? Or do you want me to carry you?” Chat asked her. Marinette bit her lip anxiously.

“It would be easier if I just transformed…” she muttered, peering into her purse that was full of cookies. Chat wasn’t sure there was even room for Tikki inside the purse, but he didn’t dare say anything. Tikki had told him that Monday night only happened because Marinette ran out of cookies and couldn’t transform, so of course she would want to have extra cookies with her just in case.

“You don’t have to transform if you aren’t ready, Marinette,” Tikki said, hovering at her eye level. “Take this at your pace. If you don’t want to transform, Chat can carry you and I’ll go along for the ride.”

“It won’t be difficult, Bugaboo. Maybe a little slower, but we’ll get there,” Chat promised. Marinette was still hesitating, so Chat reached over and put his hand on her shoulder gently. “I won’t let anything happen to you, and I promise you won’t run out of cookies while we’re at Master Fu’s. It’s entirely up to you.”

“I’m not ready to transform yet,” Marinette whispered. Tikki smiled sympathetically and zipped over to rest on her shoulder.

“Do you want to ride on my back or do you want me to carry you?” Chat asked.

“Which is easier?”

“Well, having you on my back would make it easier to vault across the rooftops with my baton, but I can just jump over them, so it doesn’t really make a difference.”

“Then I’ll just ride on your back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“You hesitated.”

“Chat…”

“Marinette, do you want me to carry you and just don’t want to be a burden? Or would you rather I touch you as little as possible?” Chat asked. “I won’t make this decision for you. If you want to be in control of how much you are touched, climb on my back and we’ll go. If you want to be held, I can do that. But I think you need to make that decision on your own, and then if you change your mind later, we can change things up.”

“I want to be in control,” Marinette finally decided. Chat smiled and knelt down to make it easier for her to climb onto his back. She climbed on and wrapped her arms around her shoulder as if she was hugging him from behind, and as he stood up, she wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned and grinned at her over his shoulder.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I am. Tikki, are you?” Marinette asked.

“Ready!” Tikki replied brightly.

“Then let’s go!” Chat said, extending his baton and vaulting over the railing to the next rooftop, heading in the direction of Master Fu’s house. 

It wasn’t far, but the sensation of vaulting over Paris seemed to raise Marinette’s spirits. She squeaked and eeped a few times when there was a particularly long fall between rooftops, but he also heard her giggling quietly which made him smile.

_She may not be okay now, and she may not be okay for a while,_ Chat thought as they finally landed on Master Fu’s rooftop and she climbed off his back, her eyes sparkling happily even though her smile was small, _but she’s still in there, and eventually she will be okay._

“I figured using the door on his rooftop was probably easier than the alleyway, but I can bring you down there if you’d prefer,” Chat said. Marinette shook her head.

“This is fine. Are you coming in too?” she asked.

“If you want me to,” Chat said. Marinette nodded, and he smiled. “Then okay. We just have to be sneaky about it. We wouldn’t want anyone seeing Chat Noir walking into a civilian apartment.”

“Oh, that’s right…” Marinette said. She looked between him, Tikki, and the door as a plan formed in her mind, even though it made her a little anxious.

_I can trust him,_ she thought. _He would never do anything to me. I know that like I know I’m Ladybug._

_Even if I don’t feel like Ladybug right now._

“Well, what if I went in first, and then you detransformed and walked in behind me? I won’t look back at you, but no one will think anything of seeing two teenagers together. You can transform again after we get inside Master Fu’s,” Marinette suggested. Chat’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure?” Chat asked.

“Yes. I trust you, and I promise I won’t look back at you. Just don’t stand too close,” Marinette said. Chat nodded.

“Okay,” he said. They walked over to the door together and Marinette went in first. He let her walk down a few steps before walking inside and dropping his transformation. Then he followed her down the stairs and into Master Fu’s apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I wasn't going to include anything about Chameleon in this fic. I really wasn't. But there is one chapter for later that I've already written in response to Chameleon, so I had to at least reference it here. Just know that fic is working under the assumption that the class has moved on from Chameleon, but that Lila hasn't been exposed yet. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
> 
> Also! The "only drug dealers have two phones" is an actual thing that someone said to me once. Somehow it came up in conversation that I had two phones (I'm from the US but I go to school abroad and because of contract issues I couldn't unlock my phone to put in a new SIM when I moved so I had to get a new phone), and this guy that was a part of the conversation told me that. Obviously it's not true (I have two phones and I know at least a few other students that have two phones for the same reason I do), but it was too funny not to include.
> 
> Up next: Master Fu finally explains what is going on with Marinette's powers and we start to find out what Hawkmoth is planning.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it, Merry/Happy/Blessed/Bitching Yule to any witches/pagans reading this, and Happy End of 2018 to everyone else! (Also, of course, happy holidays to anyone who has/had religious holidays that either already passed or I just didn't mention!) I would say Happy New Years but I want to get one more chapter in before the end of the year so by not saying it now, I'm more motivated to get the next chapter done! Hopefully...
> 
> Second, I completely forgot to share the pop culture references from Chapter 7! There were actually three; I forgot about one when I wrote the Author's Note. 
> 
> The first one was a reference to the poem Ladybird, Ladybird which goes: "Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children all gone; all except one and that's little Ann, and she has crept under the warming pan." 
> 
> The second one was the evil Bee turning into Poison Ivy from the DC universe. 
> 
> The third one (that I cannot believe I forgot about) was from The Arcana Game and was the magical compass Ladybird used to find her Black Cat. In The Arcana Game, there is a compass that points to your heart's desire, and that was the compass Ladybird's Lucky Charm gave her to find her kitty.
> 
> Third, I hope y'all like this chapter better than the last one...there's a lot of plot that directly relates to stuff we've already encountered in this fic so far, so that should make it more interesting. There are also clues to later plot points here, so enjoy!

Master Fu opened the door as soon as he heard the knock. He had been expecting Marinette that day. He had not been expecting to see Adrien detransformed and standing behind her when she arrived.

“Marinette! Come on in,” Master Fu said hesitantly. Marinette walked in without looking behind her.

“I haven’t seen his identity yet,” she said quickly. Tikki floated off of her hiding place on Marinette’s shoulder. “We just didn’t want any of your neighbors to see Chat Noir walk in here.”

“I see,” Master Fu said, motioning for Adrien to walk inside so he could shut the door. As soon as it clicked shut, Adrien called for his transformation. Marinette did not turn around until the green light faded. Master Fu noticed the bags under her eyes and the way she anxiously rubbed at her wrists that were covered by the sleeves of her pink sweater and felt a pang of sympathy. Whatever had happened to her must have been worse than he anticipated. “What is it you would like to talk about?”

Marinette’s eyes flicked between Master Fu and Chat Noir as she hesitated. Tikki nodded in Chat Noir’s direction to indicate that he was the cause of Marinette’s discomfort.

“Chat Noir, why don’t you go into the kitchen and boil some water for me?” Master Fu asked. “Once the water is hot, I’ll make a fresh pot of tea and we can talk about what happened then.”

“Okay,” Chat agreed. He smiled reassuringly at Marinette and walked into the kitchen, closing the door behind him. Master Fu motioned for Marinette to sit at the table. Tikki took one look at Marinette’s expression and decided to fly into the kitchen with Chat. If Marinette needed to talk to Master Fu about what Tikki thought she was going to talk to him about, she would probably feel more comfortable talking about it without Tikki there to influence her decision. After all, Marinette already knew where Tikki stood on that issue.

“You don’t want to talk about what happened around him,” Master Fu commented as they both sat down. Marinette started to fidget with her sleeves.

“He already knows what happened, but he doesn’t _know_ what happened. Not everything, and not in detail…the only people who truly know everything that happened so far have been the doctors that treated me. Lt. Raincomprix knows everything I was able to tell him that night, and I’ll have to tell him the rest of it today, but Chat doesn’t know yet…” Marinette said quietly. “It’s too hard to tell him. How could he still trust me to be Ladybug if he finds out everything that I couldn’t protect myself from? How could he still trust me to keep Paris safe if I couldn’t even keep myself safe? And if Rena and Carapace found out, let alone Chloe? How could they trust that I won't let Hawkmoth win when I already let Michel win? I don’t even know how I can still be Ladybug and have to hide what I’m feeling and push all of this aside to help Paris! I can’t even leave my house alone, and I can barely talk to my parents about any of this…”

“I understand, Marinette. What you went through couldn’t have been easy,” Master Fu said. “I won’t force you to tell me what happened, but I will listen if you want to talk about it. But I am going to ask you what you want. Do you want to keep your Miraculous and continue being Ladybug? Or do you want to give up the earrings and let someone else take on that responsibility? And if you decide to give up being Ladybug, would you want to choose a new Miraculous and continue being a hero like Rena Rouge and Carapace and Queen Bee? Would you want to continue training to be a Guardian? Or would you want to just be a civilian and leave all of this behind?”

“Do I have to decide right now?” Marinette asked with wide eyes. Her brain felt like it had shorted out as soon as Master Fu told her she had to tell him what she wanted. Being Ladybug was a huge responsibility and it came with a lot of stress, but did she really want to give it up? To give up Tikki and flying across the rooftops and helping people? To give up Chat?

“No, Marinette, of course you don’t have to decide now. You can decide whenever you’re ready, and you can always change your mind later,” Master Fu assured her.

“But Paris needs Ladybug. If I give them up, you would have to give the earrings to someone to purify the akumas. Would you really just take them away from a new Ladybug if I changed my mind?” Marinette asked.

“If you gave up the earrings, I would give them to someone who understands it is a temporary loan. Perhaps to Rena Rouge, who already knows about being an emergency hero, and either I would explain that you had to leave Paris for a short while and would one day come back for them, or you could tell her what happened and explain that you just need a break to heal,” Master Fu said. “If you decided to never come back for them, then Rena would just continue to be the new Ladybug until Hawkmoth was defeated.”

“But what if I accidentally reveal my identity to her by telling her what happened to me?” Marinette asked.

“Marinette, I know Tikki and I have instructed you to protect your identity at all costs. There was good reason for that rule. It prevented Hawkmoth from discovering your identity and attacking you or your family directly to get your Miraculous. But as I hope you’ve realized, there always comes a time when a secret identity is more harmful than it is helpful. Had you not made the decision to reveal yourself to Chat Noir, we may not be sitting here today,” Master Fu said. “Your friends and family will be very important in helping you heal. If you feel that you can trust them enough to tell them what happened, and you want to tell them that you are Ladybug, you should trust your instincts. I would recommend not telling all of Paris who you are, but if you want to tell your parents or any of your closest friends, or perhaps Rena Rouge, Carapace, or Queen Bee, I don’t see a problem with that. Especially if you do decide to step away from being Ladybug and pass the earrings on to one of them.”

“Oh,” Marinette said quietly. She reached up and touched her earring mindlessly. 

_Could I really give them up?_

“Marinette, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about not being able to be Ladybug while you heal. I’m just letting you know that you do have options. Just because I think you’re the best Ladybug Paris has to offer doesn’t mean you have to be Ladybug above all else. Being Marinette is just as important,” Master Fu said with a warm smile. Marinette smiled back as Chat walked into the room with Tikki.

“The water is boiling,” Chat announced. “I would have made the tea myself, but I wasn’t sure where you kept it and I didn’t want to dig through your cabinets.”

“That’s fine, Chat Noir. Why don’t you sit with Marinette and I’ll have the tea ready in a few minutes?” Master Fu suggested. Chat nodded and sat down next to her, while Tikki floated over to the table and landed on the spot in front of Marinette. Master Fu nodded once and went to make the tea.

“So, what did Master Fu say?” Chat asked.

“Weren’t you listening through the door?” Marinette asked.

“Princess, I would never!” Chat said in a scandalized tone.

“I didn’t let him,” Tikki promised.

“So, he was tempted,” Marinette said with a small smile.

“Okay, maybe I was a little tempted,” Chat finally admitted, “but I wouldn’t actually have done it. Whatever you were talking about was obviously meant for just the two of you. I know I’ve had a bad cattitude with you in the past when I felt like I was being kept out of the loop, so I know why you think I would eavesdrop on your conversation, but I want you to know that I really do understand if you decide you don’t want me to be so involved with all of this, or if there are things you don’t want me to know. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, and I just want to help you however I can. You’re the best partner I could ask for, and I want you to feel like you can always trust me, now more than ever.”

“Thank you,” Marinette said, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She rubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater and smiled wobbly at him. “I, um, I’m considering telling Alya and Nino that I’m Ladybug…and about what happened on Monday.”

“If you think that’s a good idea, then so do I,” Chat said, nudging her shoulder with a grin. He wished she had mentioned telling Adrien what happened too, but he wasn’t going to bring himself up and make her cry again. “Imagine how surprised Alya will be when she finds out she’s secretly been best friends with Ladybug this entire time! I think she might explode.”

“Maybe,” Marinette said, a small, secretly amused smile lighting up her eyes for a second before her eyes darkened again and her smile fell. “How are they going to react, though…? Will they even believe me?”

“Marinette, please don’t worry about what they’ll think. If they truly are good friends and are worthy of your friendship, they’ll support you,” Tikki said.

“If anything, they’ll probably wish they had a Miraculous so they could avenge you, but they’ll stand by you through this. And if they don’t, then I’ll go and talk some sense into them myself,” Chat promised.

“Thanks, Kitty,” Marinette said, reaching over to grab his hand and give it a squeeze.

“Anything, my Lady,” Chat said, squeezing her hand in return. "Also, I was thinking about giving you my phone number so you can contact me if you ever want to."

"Chat, that would risk you revealing your identity to me..." Marinette pointed out.

"No, no, I know that. I wouldn't give you my actual phone number," Chat clarified. "I was thinking about getting a second phone, with a prepaid SIM or something. That way you would have my number and could reach out if you had nightmares or wanted company but didn't know how or who to call. Plus, a prepaid phone wouldn't reveal my identity since you would be the only person with that number. Unless of course you saw the second phone while I was detransformed, but I don't think we have to worry about that too much."

"You would really get a new phone just to talk to me?" Marinette asked.

"Princess, I would do anything for you. I thought you knew that by now," Chat said, rubbing circles on the back of Marinette's hand.

Marinette just blushed and looked at their joined hands to avoid meeting his gaze. She pointedly ignored Tikki's soft "aww" and her knowing smile.

“I think we need to talk about how Marinette’s powers are changing,” Master Fu said as he walked back into the room. Marinette finally let go of Chat’s hand as he sat down with them and put the teapot on the table.

“My powers are changing?” Marinette asked. “Is that what Tikki meant when she said there was a reason why I haven’t been akumatized in the past two days?”

“Yes, I believe it was,” Master Fu said, taking Tikki’s nod as confirmation. He served them each a cup of tea as he began to explain, “Marinette, I’ve been training you to one day become a Guardian by teaching you the history of the Miraculous and about their powers and kwamis, and you’ve helped me unlock the recipes of the power potions to give you a better chance of defeating some of Hawkmoth’s more difficult akumas. But there are things I haven’t told you about previous Miraculous holders that I honestly hoped I would never have to tell you, or at least would never apply to you. When a Miraculous has been active for many years and its holder still transforms regularly, some of the powers of the Miraculous begin to seep into its holder’s civilian life. For a Ladybug, that typically means always having exactly what you need, especially when it comes to smaller items like pens or needles or spare change. For a Black Cat, it can mean things randomly break near you when you become too emotional. For a Peacock, it can mean projecting your own emotions onto others, while a Butterfly would be able to sense other’s emotions if you didn’t naturally have that ability already. All of that is a natural progression and is a mostly seamless transition where the holder has no control over when and how it happens. It comes as naturally as purring would to a Cat, which is a side-effect of the Miraculous that emerges after only a few months. But when a Miraculous holder goes through severe trauma, the magic speeds up that transition so it happens overnight. Sometimes the holder doesn’t notice it, and sometimes they do. It’s the Miraculous’ way of helping its holder heal, in a sense. 

“What is happening to you, Marinette, is that your ability to purify akumas has evolved beyond your yo-yo. It seems to have attached itself to your energy and expanded to form a barrier over Paris. This is good, in that it prevents Hawkmoth from using your pain to akumatize you. With this new power, you don’t have to think about staying positive and happy all the time. You can let your emotions run their course and heal at your own pace. What it also seems to be doing is preventing Hawkmoth from akumatizing anyone, meaning that you won’t have to worry about transforming and fighting someone who got upset over something like being told not to feed the pigeons or a kid thinking he can outrun a panther,” Master Fu explained.

“Wait…but if Hawkmoth can’t akumatize anyone anymore, does that mean we won? He can’t hurt anyone or steal our Miraculous without his akumas, so did we defeat him?” Marinette asked, sipping at her tea.

“It’s not that simple, Marinette,” Master Fu said. “You won’t have defeated Hawkmoth until you can take back his Miraculous and stop him once and for all. Unfortunately, finding him without him being able to akumatize anyone is going to become significantly harder, if not nearly impossible. Plus, there is a risk of someone else’s emotions being stronger than your barrier, meaning if that happens, they can be akumatized.”

“So, then what do we do?” Chat asked. “You said these powers can’t be controlled.”

“I know neither of you will understand this right now, but this power feels different from the normal way they develop. Despite being a seemingly passive barrier, its connection to her energy, and the way its strength seems to constantly wax and wane makes me think it’s actually an active power that can be manipulated and controlled. Which means Marinette will have to learn to control her new power,” Master Fu told him, then turned to Marinette. “That control will come in time. As you heal, you’ll learn to feel how strong your barrier is, and I believe you will be able to control when the barrier is up and when it’s not. I’ll help you learn.”

“What if I can’t control it? And what if I can’t come here often enough to learn anymore?” Marinette asked.

“One thing at a time, Marinette. We’ll act under the assumption that you will be able to control it until we know for a fact that you can’t, and then we’ll come up with a different plan. And perhaps it’s time I met your parents,” Master Fu said. “What is it that they think we’re doing?”

“They think you’re a therapist Chat recommended,” Marinette said.

“Ah. Then I should definitely meet them. I have a feeling this afternoon would not be a good time, but perhaps around this time tomorrow?” Master Fu asked.

“I’ll let them know,” Marinette said.

“Excellent. Now, do you two need to leave? Classes should be starting again soon,” Master Fu pointed out.

“Yeah, if nothing else I should go,” Chat said as he finished his tea. “Marinette, do you want me to bring you home first or do you want to spend more time here?”

“I need to get home. My parents are hiring a lawyer to help me press charges and I need to meet with them before I go to the station to talk to Lt. Raincomprix again to give a formal statement,” Marinette said. She took a shaky breath and squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it…”

“Do you want me to be there?” Chat asked, reaching over and squeezing her hand gently. Marinette squeezed back but shook her head.

“No, you have class. You probably do need to talk to Lt. Raincomprix eventually though, or at least to be a witness during the trial,” Marinette said.

“You’ll be okay, Marinette,” Tikki reassured her.

“And remember, it’s okay if you get emotional while talking about it. Hawkmoth can’t akumatize you as long as your barrier is up,” Master Fu pointed out. “You’ll get through this.”

“Thank you,” Marinette said, opening her eyes as she smiled tightly.

“You’re welcome,” Master Fu said. He smiled warmly at them before standing up. “Now, you two should probably get going. We can talk about this more later.”

The two teenagers nodded and stood to leave. Marinette and Tikki were the first out the door and into the hallway, while Chat Noir detransformed and followed them outside. Once they had made their way back up the stairs to the roof, Adrien transformed again and brought Marinette home.

~*~*~*~

“You wanted to see me, sir?” Nathalie asked as she walked into Gabriel’s office.

“Yes, Nathalie. Did you find out anything on the girl?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, sir. Marinette Dupain-Cheng lives down the street from College Francois Dupont, the school she and Adrien attend together. She is in Ms. Bustier’s class with him. As you know, she is a talented designer, but she is also class representative and has a reputation for doing everything she can to help her friends. She does not get along with Lila Rossi or Chloe Bourgeois, but seems to get along with everyone else. Her parents own the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, and they live in the apartments above it. Most notably, she is related to world renowned chef Wang Cheng, and there are rumors that Jagged Stone has adopted her as a niece of sorts after she designed a pair of glasses and an album cover for him. By all accounts, it seems that she has a crush on Adrien, sir,” Nathalie said, looking up from her tablet briefly to see how Gabriel would react to the news. Gabriel was, as always, stoically watching her while he waited for her to finish telling him what she had learned. “As for what happened on Monday night, I reached out to an old friend in the Paris police department who works very closely with Lt. Raincomprix. He said that while he wasn’t involved, there was a task force sent to meet Chat Noir at an abandoned building just a few blocks from here. A girl matching Marinette’s description was abducted by a man named Michel Boivin. The exact details are being kept private at the girl’s request, but he said the rumor going around amongst the other officers is that Mr. Boivin raped her, and that he had intended to kill her had Chat Noir not shown up. He also said she was meant to go to the station this afternoon with her lawyer to give a more formal statement so they could begin pushing for a trial.”

“I expect you’ll be waiting at the station today to find out if the girl involved is Marinette?” Gabriel asked.

“That was the plan, sir,” Nathalie confirmed. “He said they were expecting her around 3:00 pm.”

“Perfect. Keep me updated,” Gabriel said.

“Of course, sir,” Nathalie said. She turned to leave but stopped suddenly and turned back to him. When he looked up, there was a teasing glint in her eyes. “Also, I noticed the teapot in your room was empty. Perhaps it wasn’t such an unwelcome addition after all.”

“That will be all, Nathalie,” Gabriel said, waving her away. He heard her snicker as she walked out of the room and shook his head.

_Of course she checked that damn teapot._

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it, let me know! If not...well, if you got this far, then surely you read the tags and the summary and the author's note at the beginning. I don't know that I can do much more for you if this just isn't your cup of tea. 
> 
> Might I suggest trying an earl grey tea with lavender and vanilla? That's one of my favorites.


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